To the Heavens
by datexan
Summary: Description: Ranma is loosing it, and after looking over his life he sees only one way out. One night, he wakes up Nabiki with the request that he either kill him, or help him die. Unfinished and proofreaders needed
1. The Pain Within

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." Although I've had many ideas for them lately. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

Ranma had not been his usual self, not for some time. At least that is how it appeared to Nabiki. Since the return from China, and the failed wedding, he seemed listless and at times on the verge of lifelessness. However, he had an outward appearance of being the same as he still taunted Akane, and Akane still hit him with her mallet. But not only that but he remained the same to Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi. And as far as Nabiki could tell, each of this fiancées did not notice the listless look in Ranma's eyes.

Yes, it was his eyes that told the story to her. Nabiki had made a living off reading people from their eyes alone. Based off eye movements she knew when to press for more, or when to back off. She knew by the glaze in someone's eyes when she had struck a nerve on whom they liked, or from their hardness if they hated someone.

However, looking at him she could tell that there was no longer any life left. He just seemed to exist. She contemplated many times about taking pictures of him in both forms and selling the pictures as normal. But that just seemed wrong; almost like kicking a wounded animal when it was down.

For several days, she watched him, and tried to find a way to profit off him by either his actions or his moods. But she couldn't think of a way to profit off this, not without some severe consequences. And so, tonight, like many other nights she went to sleep and wondered what to do.

Tap tap tap 

A sound awoke her from her slumber.

Tap tap tap 

Looking towards her window, she could see the outline of someone standing there. Getting up she moved towards it with a touch of worry. However, when she pulled back her curtains and saw Ranma, she relaxed.

"Nabiki, can I come in?"

"What do you want?" she asked tiredly but she did notice that his eyes seemed to hold a little more life than usual.

"I need your help."

"Oh really?" She asked with a smirk and opened the window.

"Thanks," he said as he stepped into the room.

"So what do you want?"

"I… I need your help."

"You already said that."

Speaking softly he told her, "I know… and I've been thinking. I want you to kill me."

THAT got Nabiki's attention. "WHAT! Are you out of your mind?"

"Shhhh!" He hissed. "Don't wake everyone up."

"And why shouldn't I?" she asked. 

"Look, I need to get away from here…"

"Then go, take a training trip or something," she told him starting to get irritated.

"Won't work. If I leave then pops and Mr. Tendo will come after me, and they'll drag Akane with them, and then all the others will follow them."

"Then just sneak away."

He shook his head. "No good they'll still find me. If I just runaway, they'll find a way to track me down." 

"So you want me to kill you?"

"Its either that or I commit seppuku."

Her eyes opened wide. "You wouldn't!"

"It's not like I have any choice anymore." 

"Yes you do, marry a girl, just pick one and settle down." 

"I can't."

She snorted and crossed her arms. "Oh and why not?"

"If I married anyone, Akane, Ukyo or any number of other girls pops sold me to, then Shampoo will just try to kill them."

"What about…"

"Shampoo? No. I can't do that." Her raised eyebrow at that caused him to sigh. "I may not be much, but I do have my honor. If I married anyone, then I'd dishonor the others an whoever I married." Nabiki blinked, she didn't think that he actually thought that far ahead. 

"Because of pops, the only 'honorable' solution is seppuku. Do I pick Akane, and dishonor Ukyo after pops stole her dowry? Or do I choose Ukyo and dishonor Akane because of giri? If I choose either of those, then Shampoo will try to kill her and take me back to China."

"You surprise me Saotome."

"Uh… thanks…" He shrugged and kept talking. "Anyway, if I go back to China with Shampoo then I dishonor all promises that pops made." 

"That doesn't sound bad."

"I know… pops jumps on me about my honor, but the fat panda, has none himself." He let out a dejected sigh. "The best option is to choose Shampoo… at least that way Akane and Ukyo can still live. But Ukyo has to either kill me, or become a Saotome."

Nabiki sighed, "Your father has certainly made things difficult."

"That's where you come in."

"Me?"

"I need to die, and you're the best at doing it."

"Um, no, sorry Saotome, but I'm not going to kill you."

"No… I mean help me die."

A thought struck Nabiki. "You mean faking your death?"

"Yea, I know you know the right people, you can get it done. If I'm gone, then Akane can be happy, and Ukyo can continue with her life, and Shampoo can go back to her village as well."

"I don't know; it's a lot to think about, and to pull off."

"I know… that's why…"

"Why what?" she asked but she was starting to think that she did not want to hear this answer.

"I have decided that if I can't get away and let everyone live in peace… then I'll do it." 

"Do what?" Nabiki asked but really did not want to know. 

"I'll fulfill mom's pledge."

Nabiki drew in a breath as he said it. She knew him well enough to know he doesn't joke about this, nor does he change his mind when he sets his mind to it. "You're serious?"

He nodded and pulled out a tanto. "I have the blade ready, and I'm ready to end this."

Nabiki's eyes opened as wide as they could as she looked at the blade in his hand. "You wouldn't?"

"It's the only way. I wish I could force pops to follow me, but I know the fat ass would find some way to skirt out from it."

"But… but what about…" she wanted to ask him about what them, her family. What would they do with him gone? But she then felt a severe pang of regret as she realized that she was being very selfish and not taking into account his feelings.

"I wish there was something more I could do. But this is it. If I'm gone then maybe pops will move back in with mom, and then you won't have to worry about his fat ass around here." Nabiki was bout to say something but he stopped her. "Just think about it, no crazy challenges, no fights, everything will be back to the way it was before pops an I showed up."

A part of Nabiki wanted to say that she preferred the way things are now, at least there seemed to be life left in the house. Thinking hard of a way to convince him to stay, to change his mind she asked, "How can you survive on your own? What are you going to do about money, food, clothes?"

"That's where you come in."

"What?" 

"If you can help me die, then I know you can help me get started on a new life. I have to get as far from here as I can." 

"I think you've got more faith in my contacts than I do." 

"Nabiki, I have to get out of here. I'm slowly dying and if I can't get out in a week, then my only choice is this!" So saying pulled the tonto from its sheath and held it against his stomach. "I want to be free, to get away from here…"

"What… what about your honor? You'd be running away from everything." 

"My honor ain't worth the dishonor I'd be puttin' on them. If I can get outta this without messing up anyone else's honor, I would. But the only way to do that is for me to die." 

"But…" she tried to say but he kept going.

"I know… but that can't be helped. It's either go… or stay and everyone stays miserable."

"I... I don't know Ranma… I'll have to think about it."

"Ok… but don't take too long. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."


	2. Time to Pig Out

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." Although I've had many ideas for them lately. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

For the next several days, Nabiki looked at Ranma's situation from every angle possible, and she came up with only four ways to satisfy the problem. The first was for Ranma to die, be it by himself, one of his rivals or some other way. The second was for him just let everything stay as it was. And the third was to marry a Tendo girl, as well as Kuonji and Shampoo. However that last option was not legal anywhere that she could find.

The last option was to get at least two of the girls to drop their claim on Ranma, but there again, Ukyo's dowry had already been taken, and she doubted that her father would give up on his dream and the Amazons weren't the kind to give up.

"Damn…" Nabiki muttered as she looked over everything one more time. "There's no way out of this… no loopholes, nothing." And what made everything worse, was that she found out though Shampoo that Cologne had a cup attuned to Ranma's ki, so she would see though a fake death. "Damn it all…"

"Any luck?" A voice asked from her window.

She didn't even have to look up to know who it was. "None and we can't fake your death either."

"Why not?" he asked though she dared not turn around to look in his eyes.

"Shampoo told me that Cologne has a cup that she somehow attuned to your ki. So no matter how good we fake it, she'll know it's a fake."

"Oh… then I guess I should get things ready…"

"NO!" She hissed at him. Standing up from her desk, she looked at him and nearly cried at the completely lost look he had. "I've taken on a saying that someone I know has. Nabiki Tendo never looses. I took this challenge and I'm not about to give up. Not yet. So you better not give up on me either." 

"But… Nabiki…"

"Look, you've been living with us for some time, and I guess I took it for granted that you'd always be here." She let out a tired sigh, but continued anyway. "You're already like family to me, and I'm not about to let family take their own life. If there's no other way then you, Ukyo, Shampoo and I are going to all get married."

"What?" He asked with wide almost panicked eyes.

"Akane won't go for it, and I know that Kasumi would, but it'd be for honor only and she's already given up too much for this family." 

"N-Nabiki… I…"

"You may not think I hold to honor, but I do. Plus," she said and smiled at him. "I know that you'd take care of me."

Ranma stared at her and gulped slowly. Looking away from her, he shook his head. "No… it wouldn't work."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah… Um… Shampoo and Cologne both want to go back to China… and I know you'd hate it there."

"If we made some concessions, I'm sure that Cologne would allow Shampoo to stay. Besides if shown to her that you'd rather die than dishonor the rest of us, then I'm positive she'd go for it." Nabiki was not too thrilled about the idea, but if it kept him alive, then she'd do it.

"Yea but I don't love them," he said simply.

"Ranma, we aren't talking about love here. This is the problem with arranged marriages, there is little to no love in them," she said tiredly and shrugged her shoulders.

"I… I'll think about it. But it's not fair to you, or to them to be stuck with me."

"And it's not fair for your life to be threatened because of the stupidity of your father."

He sighed, as he knew that he's lost this argument. "Ok, but I'm not happy about it."

"And you think we are?"

Again, he sighed and shook his head. "If you think you can get them to go for it…" he chuckled though there seemed to be an absence of humor to it. "It'll make mom happy as she wants me to have as many mistresses as I can…" 

Nabiki shook her head. "Ranma how did you ever come out sane with parents like them?"

"Who says I am? I got who knows how many fiancée's, a mom that wants me to keep them all, a pop that is worthless for anything but the art, and even then it's kinda questionable. Then I've got a fiancée I thought was a boy but she's spent ten years tryin' to kill me an now... how longs it been?" he shook his head quickly. "Never mind I don't wanna know. But now she's tryin to marry me. The only person I've known longer than her is Ryoga... and he just wants to kill me…"

"Over the bread still?" She asked with a slight glint to her eyes.

"Naw, about his curse he…" he stopped short and grinned weakly at her.

"I thought so… but I could never get proof. You two can cover that story pretty well."

He wasn't sure what he should say, so he said the only thing that came to his mind, "Um... thanks…"

"No problem, this will be free… I think there's going to be an accident next time I see him."

"Um... that's not a good idea," he told her slightly worried.

She waved it off though, "Worried about me, there's no need."

"If you're sure…"

"I'm sure. Now I think you need to get to bed while I finish going over these things. I have one other option to check out." Tiredly she sat back down in her chair. 

"Thanks Nabiki. I don't know how or if I can ever repay ya for this." With that said the greatest martial artist in Nerima stepped out her window and left the girl known as the Ice Queen to her thoughts.

'Damn him…' she thought wryly. 'Damn him for making me think he's family and damn me for getting attached to him.' With a sly grin, Nabiki went back to working though the problem that was Ranma and his fiancées.

It took longer for her to check out her last option than it took Ryoga to show up. Coming down the stairs to the dinner table, she saw Ranma sitting there with that vacant look in his eyes though he made a show of complaining about the pig. With a grin, Nabiki sat in her normal spot. "Akane, the way you act, you'd think you were in love with P-chan," she said with a grin. 

"Huh… what?" Both Akane and Ranma asked while P-chan had a pleased look on his face.

"You know Akane, I think Shampoo has some of those instant boy packets… we could use one and turn P-chan into a boy…"

"What? No way!" Akane shouted causing p-chan to look crestfallen. "P-chan may be cute but no…"

With a sharks grin, Nabiki asked her, "Oh why not? He's seen you naked… and changing clothes… I bet you've even told him most if not all of your little secrets."

"Well um… yea…" Akane said while Ranma stayed deathly quiet.

"So what's the problem? He knows you better than I bet Ranma does. In fact… I bet you're closer to p-chan than you are to both Ranma and Ryoga."

"Well… yea… Ryoga's nice and he's not a pervert like Ranma… and Ryoga even likes my cooking…"

Ranma was about to say something but a look from Nabiki quieted him allowing the Ice Queen to continue. "I know what you mean. He doesn't insult you, taunt you, or hurt your feelings. It's almost like he knows all your secrets already."

"Well…" Akane was going to deny it, but it did sound strange and she had to wonder how he knew.

Ranma blinked and looked at the smirking pig in Akane's lap. And although Ranma's blood was boiling the pig was just eating it up that he was getting closer to Akane than he was.

Nabiki let out a sigh. "Wouldn't it be funny…" 

"What?" Akane asked.

"With as close as Ryoga is getting to you, you'd think he was p-chan… he knows your secrets and…"

"What! No!" Akane shouted. "Ryoga's not a pervert like Ranma." That caused to smirk to fall off Ryoga's pig face. "How can you even suggest that Ryoga is p-chan? He's not like that; he's not a pervert or a jerk like Ranma."

"Hay!" The pigtailed martial artist protested.

"It's true… Ryoga's sweet and kind… and…" As she was talking, Akane looked at p-chan and saw a hopeful look in the pigs face. Just moments before that face changed into the face of Ryoga. "What?" She shouted as she was now holding a now very male… and very nude Ryoga.

"I'm sorry Akane… I spilt my tea… hay if p-chan got hit with hot water that means he does have a curse…" 

"Ryoga…"

"Ah… Akane… I…"

Ranma blinked, and then looked to Nabiki. When she motioned him to back away, he did so quietly.

"Ryoga… you… PERVERT!" Akane screamed and drew out a mallet easily twice a large as anyone used on Ranma. "I"LL KILL YOU!" She shouted and brought the mallet down on Ryoga slamming him into the floor of the dining room.

"…ouch…" he said from the crater.

"I... I trusted you… I thought you were better than Ranma… I… I changed clothes in front of you… I hate you!"

"… but it's Ranma's fault…" he tried as he pulled himself out of the pit.

"HIS FAULT! How! Did he make you watch me change clothes… did he make you stay in my room… no he… he… AHHH! The baka tried to get you out of my room!"

"See… it's his fault…"

"SHUTUP!" Akane shouted and delivered a mallet-powered uppercut that sent Ryoga though the ceiling and out into the yard.

Weather it was thanks to Ryoga's training or his weight he did not travel all the way to the koi pond. "But Akane…"

"NO! I've had it with you… you lied to me… you used me… I hate you! I never want to see you again! Just go away and DIE for all I care!" Akane said in tears and then ran up to her room.

Ryoga just stayed transfixed at the spot that she had yelled at him. His world and heart had broken. Just a few moments ago, she had been saying how much she liked him… and now this...

"Here's your clothes." Nabiki said from the doorway. "I've been wondering why you kept a change of clothes in the furo. Now I guess I know." 

"Nabiki… you… you…" Ryoga said as he stalked closer to her.

She was not worried tough as just beside her and hidden from Ryoga's view was Ranma, and she knew that he wouldn't let anything happen to her. So when Ryoga got close enough she slapped him. "Oh shut up."

"Wha…" He asked as the slap had not hurt, but it did get his attention.

"You're the bastard that screwed up. You hid your curse. -You- took advantage of her. YOU lied to her. -YOU- are the one at fault, not Ranma." But this time she was mad enough to kill, but she held herself at bay.

"What do you care… you sold pictures of her to Kunö and who knows how many others at school. Besides, it was Ranma's fault I got cursed."

Nabiki cooled her anger, crossed her arms in front of her and smiled dangerously. "Ryoga, there is a difference between pictures and being in the same room. And the pictures were of Akane working out, not in her underwear. And you have even slept in her room. You violated her trust. You're nothing but a sick perverted pig."

"I AM NOT!"

"Then what are you?"

"I… I'm a martial artist and…" 

"No, you're not," The shorthaired girl replied stiffly. 

"What?" Ryoga asked verbally and Ranma mentally.

"Ranma has always said that a martial artist protects the weak. When have you done that?"

"Well… when his strength was taken away from him…"

"Sure, just so you could have to thrill of killing him you sadistic bastard."

"Hay!"

"You're no martial artist… a martial artist protects the weak. When you first attacked Ranma did you know that several innocent bystanders were hurt because of you?"

"But…"

"Oh shut up." Nabiki replied coldly. "No you didn't know. Because you're too narrow minded, and pig headed to care. Even when my sister got in the way… you could've killed her if Ranma hadn't been trying to get her to safely… but did you care… oh no… you still tried to fight. Some martial artist, attacking when an innocent is in danger. And that wasn't the only time. So get out of here you pig, I don't want to see you around here again." As she spoke, she reached behind her trying to grab something.

Seeing her doing that, Ranma grabbed a bottle and quickly filled a glass before handing it to her, which Nabiki tossed on the cursed pig triggering his curse. Not even looking at him, she closed the door and tried to cool her anger.

"Ah… um… you know that won't help much. He's just gonna blame me for all this," Ranma told her lamely.

"I doubt it; I made sure he knew I had the information on him, as well as making it look like an accident." She tried to just wave it off, but truth be told, she rather enjoyed telling him off like that. 

"Um, ok… if you're sure."

"I am…" she said with a smile then asked. "By the way, where are the fathers?" 

He sighed heavily. "Out drinking, which means they're planning something."

"Don't worry about them Ranma, I'm sure I can stop whatever foolish plan they concoct."

Ranma smiled nervously at her. "If you think so, um… I'm not hungry so I'm gonna go to bed."

"Ok, but before you go to school tomorrow, we need to talk."

"Ok… ok…" He said tiredly and trudged upstairs.

Nabiki watched him go and sighed. "I promise I will find that answer for you…" Letting out another tired sigh, she made her way to the dinner table but it seemed too quiet. Quickly the two older Tendo daughters finished their dinner and went their separate ways.


	3. Here Lies Ranma Saotome

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." Although I've had many ideas for them lately. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

For an hour Nabiki sat in her room and stared at all the information she had collected, there seemed to be nothing that could break the engagements other than seppuku or he marries them all. "While I don't think Akane…" she said out loud, though quietly she added herself, "would mind marrying him… there's no way they'd all go for it."

Picking up the discarded marriage license that was never completed with Ranma and Akane's names she sighed. Looking at Genma's name on there, she sneered at it. "You lousy jerk… because of you he'll never be happy." She looked over his information and chuckled. "Well at least your one thing about your blood type… when you have your eyes on a goal, you never let up… kami knows you've never given them any peace over this."

Nabiki looked over the license one more time and sighed in frustration. "Little sister?" a voice called from her door.

"Come in Kasumi."

Kasumi stepped into the room and looked around at everything. "Oh my… Nabiki what is all this?"

"All this… is Ranma's messed up life."

This caused the eldest to blink. "Oh?" 

"Ever since they came back from China… Ranma's been distant. He just wants out… and I told him I'd help him." 

"But… but why'd you do that?" Kasumi asked in alarm. 

"It's either this… or Ranma will find an out for himself…" Nabiki told her sister emptily.

"What do you mean?"

Closing her eyes, Nabiki told her, "Ranma will commit seppuku if I can't find a better out for him."

"What… you're not… you couldn't be…" she gasped out.

"No, he's very serious. I've seen the Saotome tanto…"

"Oh… oh my…"

"Yea… and his bastard of a father has him so completely trapped he either destroys his honor or his life. And we both know how he feels about his honor."

"I... I see…" Kasumi said as she stepped up behind her sister to look at the papers spread out on her desk. Looking over the papers, Kasumi saw something that looked rather interesting. "Sister…"

"Hum?" Nabiki asked as she tried once again to find the answer.

"Are you sure that Ranma is not adopted?"

"I'm sure… we have his birth certificate here… as well as all his other papers showing that Ranma is his child."

Kasumi mumbled as she looked over something. "But that's not possible…"

"What?" 

"Well, it says here that at birth his blood type was a type B… but on this one just last week it says that he's AB." 

Nabiki blinked. "And?"

"But if Ranma was one type at birth… that doesn't change… and see, it shows his mother as being an O while his father is a B," Kasumi tried to explain.

Nabiki rubbed her eyes. "Ok, I don't get it." 

"Well, if Aunty was an O… and uncle was a B… they could only have children that were a type B or O. And Ranma being AB is impossible." Kasumi explained simply.

Needless to say, Nabiki was confused. "OK, wait... what?"

"In order for Ranma to be an AB, then Auntie would have to be an A… but you just don't change your blood type… it's impossible."

"Then someone made a mistake… or perhaps it's the curse's fault?" Nabiki tried lamely.

Looking over the paperwork, Kasumi made a few noises, as she looked it over. "No… these tests were done by the hospital. So there was no mistake… maybe it was the curse's fault."

The middle daughter thought it over, and decided that this was the best they had. If they could prove that Ranma was not Genma's son… then that would eliminate everyone but Shampoo. 'She'd be happy about that one… but… there's something missing here…'

Thinking it was better than nothing, and possibly some slight good news, Nabiki went to talk to Ranma… but if anything, it depressed him even more. "Ranma… if a court or someone tries to prove your relationship to him, then these blood tests will disprove it."

"But what good will it do? You said that my birth certificate said I was their kid… so how can this be possible?" He asked close to a breakdown.

"I don't know… but I will find out. Just don't do anything rash… ok?"

"Ok…"

"Good… now night Ranma," she told him and moved to the door.

"Night Nabiki…" he said and settled down on his bed as she stepped out and closed the door. 

Secrets, everybody has them and everybody will usually try to keep them as they are. Secret. However, there are times in ones life when those secrets may need to be brought out into the open and made known. Sometimes that process or revealing secrets is easy to do. And other times it is very painstaking and occasionally heartbreaking.

There is that rare occasion that bringing the secret out into the open will be both a relief and the greatest heartache. For one woman that lived in an area near Tokyo, she was faced with a decision. On one hand, she could keep her secret hidden and then no one would know, or be the wiser. Or she could tell her only son the truth. This truth though could possibly ruin what little remained of her relationship to her son. While it may free him from many problems, it most certainly would create others.

Day in and day out, Nodoka Saotome thought of the implications of what she must one-day face, and she was not happy with the prospect. "Oh my little boy…' she said as she looked at a picture of her one and only son, Ranma Saotome. "I need to tell you, but I don't know how."

In a place not too far away from Mrs. Saotome was a suburb or Tokyo called Nerima, the place where her husband and son have been staying since their ten-year training trip ended. She allowed herself to be lulled into a lie, a lie that her son and husband used to hide from her. And for some time she allowed that lie to continue. And when their secret became known to her, she did not want to believe it. But the time had finally come to accept it, and not only that but to come clean with a secret that she kept as well.

Nodoka looked around the destroyed compound. Just over a month ago they tried to hold a wedding here at the dojo belonging to her husbands life long friend, Soün Tendo. But it was to be all for naught. The party had been crashed, and everything had been destroyed. Her sons wedding, the dojo, and his relationships with several females. Females that she had hoped that he would like and hopefully marry one of them and produce a grandchild for her to spoil. "But then I'd still be living a lie," she told herself sadly. Approaching the door, she steeled herself for what was to come, but she didn't know how to do this.

However before she could open the door, the door was almost yanked off its hinges as Ranma stalked out the door and almost ran over his mother. "Fine! I don't care any more Akane! Just… oh hi mom!" Ranma said nervously as he came face to face with his mother.

"Morning Ranma…" She said and he noticed that she omitted the 'good' as well as calling him Ranma, and not son. 

"Um… What's up?" Ranma could tell that she wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure he wanted to hear even more bad news.

"Ranma… there's something I need to tell you… do you think you can skip a day of school?"

"Oh yea! I mean, it's no problem. What's up?"

"Please Ranma, if you would… there… there's something I need to tell you and show you."

"This had better not be another fiancée Saotome," the cool voice of Nabiki sad from behind him. 'Kami… not another one… please…'

"Uh… hehe… I…" 

"You have my word Miss Tendo that this is not a fiancée," she said stiffly though she mentally added, 'though it will affect all of them.'

"Um… come on mom… let's go." Ranma tried hastily to pull his mother away from the door to make sure that there wouldn't be any more problems.

"Ranma…" Nabiki said sternly causing him to turn around. "…Remember what I talked to you about."

With a dejected sigh, he replied, "Yea… though I don't think it's gonna really help any."

As the two walked away from the Tendo home, they could hear Akane yelling something as she started running towards the school followed by a walking Nabiki. "Ranma dear, what did Nabiki talk to you about?"

"Um…" he said as intelligently as he could. "It's nothing, don't worry about it." Mentally he was cursing himself, 'Idiot! Why didn't you just ask her? It's not like it'll make any difference anyway,' he thought glumly. Last night Nabiki talked to him about his blood type, and although he hadn't really understood a lot of it, he understood enough, it would be difficult if not impossible for them to be related.

Naturally, when she brought this up to Ranma she had thought that this could be used to get him out of some of his troubles, but while it could possibly be used to negate the Tendo and Kuonji agreements, he would still have the nutcases of the Kunö clan as well as the Amazons after him.

When Ranma came out of his thoughts, he blinked as he realized that his mother had led them to one of the train stations. "Hay mom, where're we going?"

"To a very special place… this trip, I suspect will take most of the day…" she told him and mentally added, 'If not all day.'

This caused him to blink. "How long will it take us to get back? Ya know if I'm gone too long that un-cute tomboy will throw a fit." Though he tried to sound upbeat, it was plain that all of his fiancée troubles were weighing him down.

With a slight waver to her voice, she told her son, "Ranma, there are a number of things that I need to tell you… but I'm not sure how."

"Like what?"

"Now is not the time or the place… please… just wait a little longer."

Ranma nodded and followed his mother onto the train. And while there was a lot of people on board, it wasn't overly crowded. The train ride lasted about two hours, two hours of which Ranma waited nervously in silence. Finally, at the last stop, Nodoka rose and motioned for her son to follow her. 

Noticing her tense movements, Ranma followed her quietly. After leaving the train station, the two walked for another hour, still without a word being said until they arrived at the gate to a cemetery. Ranma blinked and looked at the place, and could not help but feel that his life was about to get even more complicated. For a brief moment, he thought that maybe his mom was finally going to make him follow though with that seppuku pledge. But that thought was banished as quickly as it came to him since for the first time, he realized that his mother didn't have her katana with her. 'What's with the basket though?' he asked as he finally noticed it on her arm. "Mom…"

"Ranma…" she said slowly as she proceeded into the grim looking place. "Seventeen, almost eighteen years ago, tragedy struck the Saotome family."

"What happened?"

"The day that was supposed to be one of the happiest days in my life, turned into bitter heartbreak." Ranma swallowed as she said that. His mother just seemed to be walking along the many tombstones that were around as if she knew where she was going. "I was pregnant with the first Saotome family heir… and was in the middle of giving birth to my son, when the unthinkable happened."

"What was that?" He asked and tried to keep his mouth from going dry.

Nodoka stopped and turned toward her son. "On that day… my first son… my precious Ranma… died before taking his first breath of air." She choked out and fell to her knees beside a small decorative grave.

"What?" He asked and he couldn't believe what he was being told. He died… even as a baby? "But…. Mom… I… I'm right here. I mean I lived… right?"

Sadly, Nodoka Saotome shook her head and pointed to the grave. It was then that Ranma received the shock of his life causing him to fall to his knees. They were standing at the gravesite… of Saotome Ranma, and on the headstone, it simply said… "Ranma Saotome. My precious child," but what shook him was the dates that showed he was born as well as died on the same day.


	4. Demon Horse

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." Although I've had many ideas for them lately. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

They were standing at the gravesite… of Saotome Ranma, and on the headstone, it simply said… "Ranma Saotome. My precious child," but what shook him was the dates that showed he was born as well as died on the same day.

"What the… how…"

It took some time for Nodoka to compose herself and while she was glad that Ranma had not run away, she was worried about him because he seemed to be going into shock. "Genma had gone on another one of his damnable training trips with Soün shortly before Ranma was to be born. That was when I went into labor. I got to the hospital as best as I could, but I knew something was wrong…" As she spoke, her body began to tremble, but before she could succumb to the grief, she felt her son, no she felt Ranma embrace her in a hug. "When he was born I was so happy, but… there were no sounds… no crying… and then the doctor… he… he told me…" even in his arms, the memories were too much to bear and she began to cry again as Ranma held her close as though he were her real son.

As she cried, Ranma's mind was running in circles. 'Nabiki was right… I'm not pop's kid… not mom's either… but the training, the contracts… and everything… what the hell's going on? If I'm not their son… then who's am I?' Even as he thought these things, he continued to comfort the woman he'd thought was his mother.

Calming down again, Nodoka continued her tale. "When I leaned what happened… I spent several days crying, and even the funeral didn't help. Your father was still away on his trip and there was no else to help me. I… I didn't know I was going to tell your father this. He was so looking forward to you being born."

Ranma sighed. "Yea I bet he was looking forward to it."

"Several days before he was supposed to return… something happed though."

His ears perked up at that. 'Maybe she'll tell me who my real parents are?'

Not realizing what he was thinking, Nodoka kept talking. "Things were bad then… and I was scared of what your father was going to say when he got back. So I had gone into the forest some distance south of here, to my families ancestral shrine." 

"We have a shrine?"

Though she was still crying softly, that receded some after hearing him still consider himself a part of the clan. "Yes… and while there, I… I felt something calling me. You see, close to the grounds there are a series of caves. We're not supposed go into them, as they are prone to cave-ins. But this time… this time I didn't care."

"But… why?"

She smiled at him, "Because I felt something… or someone calling to me."

"Calling to you?"

Nodding her head, she continued. "Yes and deep inside one of the caves… One I had never noticed before, there were several large crystal fragments."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well…" she dithered then sighed. "Most of the family never went in, but I used to explore them all the time. But this time… I found a new tunnel. I guess there must've been a tremor or something that opened the passage."

As she began to wander off the topic, Ranma quickly asked her, "What'd ya find in there?"

"Oh… that's easy. I found you, or rather you as a child."

This caused him to blink. "What?"

"There on the ground, around all these small broken crystals… was a baby… some clothes… and this…" As she spoke, she pulled out a few small crystal fragments from the basket she had carried with them. But what really got his attention, was the gold colored bracer that she handed him. 

The bracer, while seemingly plain looking was gold in color and had an engraving of a horse reared back on its hind legs. Ranma's first thought was 'Wild Horse,' but then he noticed that the eyes of the horse were glowing as though the horse was mad… or possessed. "Demon Horse…"

"Demon horse?"

Ranma smiled as he looked at it, and it seemed as though memories of long ago began to filter through his mind. "Demon Horse… or Ryo-ma is what I've been called. I… I was… what was I doing… how'd I get here?" he said softly and then slipped the bracer on his arm. However, upon the bracer made contact with his skin, Ranma's body seized up and after convulsing for a moment, he fell over unconscious.

"RANMA!" Nodoka cried out as she pulled her 'son's' head into her lap.

Images, or rather long lost memories began filtering though his mind. Images of a young girl maybe five or six years old with blue hair that seemed to be in spikes, but was rather soft to the touch. There was a fondness or closeness to her even though she was almost ten years younger than he was. But before he could recall her name, it shifted to an attack, things being destroyed and him being separated from her. Then he was alone again.

He grew up, and joined a police academy at a young age. Training hard, he became a detective, and though he tried to become the partner of one special lady, he was instead transferred to another department. Before he could get very far as a detective, his partner was killed. He then made his decision to leave the police, but before he left, he gave this girl, this young lady a special gift… an orange headband after they had shared a night together. A night he promised never to forget, nor would he forget her, and yet it seems as though he had forgotten everything. Though she was slightly younger that him by maybe two years, he still cared for her deeply.

As a bounty hunter, he tracked down those responsible for making him loose that little girl… that… sister…

Despite his training, and determination, it seemed that those responsible for him loosing her, and being forced away from the one girl he loved, were going to get away. Seemingly slipping though his fingers. Desperate he contacted another bounty hunter, and she introduced him to her partner. The little creature made such an impression that he had to find one of his own. She took him to a remote part of the system and while looking for one of these strange creatures, one found him.

While it could be called a cat, or a rabbit, it was actually called a cabbit, as it appeared to be a mix of the two. But its ability to transform blew him away. Especially this one. This one was quite different from the others. While the others were brown, or grey, and even a few that were white… this one was completely black with blue eyes. He and the cabbit had an immediate connection and a lifelong friendship was born. With the help of the two cabbits and the bounty hunter, he was finally able to get his vengeance on all but one of those responsible. And that one nearly provided his death.

During the battle, he was able to severely cripple his opponents' ship, but then again, his was sent spiraling as well. Satisfied that a part of his plan worked, he didn't realize the true peril he was in. By crippling the other ship, the discharge of energy created a sub-space rift that pulled him and his cabbit ship though, while his partner and the other ship were able to get to safety.

It was here, that events began to get cloudy and confusing. He remembered spiraling out of control, and falling towards a planet and about to crash into a mountain. His cabbit was severely injured, and he tried to stave off any more injuries to himself by getting into one of the regeneration tanks. But the crash activated not only the regeneration, but the suspended animation as well. He barely knew what had happened other than crashing and then everything was black for so long.

"Ugh…"

"Ranma, are you ok?" his mother asked worriedly.

"Uh yea I…" Ranma sat up and looked around. They were still in the cemetery and he was wearing that bracer again. "It wasn't a dream…" 

"No... I'm sorry. You… you're not really a Saotome." 

"Huh? Oh no… It's… you see I just regained my memories."

"You lost your memory? But you were just a child when I found you."

"Well, actually… you see…" Ranma said as he tried to find a way to tell her the truth.

"Yes?" she asked expectantly.

'Oh man… how am I gonna tell her that I'm an alien and on top of that… I'm… I'm… how old am I? lets see… I was um… fifteen or so when sis an I were separated. And then I was 18 when I joined the academy. And twenty-one when I made detective and met her… and then a year later I lost my partner and became a bounty hunter.' He grinned as he thought of his love, 'an how do I tell mom that I promised her that I'd marry her when I…' When he thought of that, Ranma could not help but to laugh.

"Ranma… are you ok?"

Still chuckling he told her, "Yea I'm fine… but… oh man… Nabiki was right."

"Right about what?"

"Well, she found my birth certificate that said I was... um… well. That Ranma was one blood type, and then my blood type was on the marriage certificate… and the blood type was different."

"Oh… I... I never noticed."

"Yea, and she was wondering if we could use that to help me get rid of a few fiancées."

"Oh I see… but wouldn't that just end the Tendo and Kuonji agreements only?"

Ranma sighed, "Yea, I still have the Amazons and the nutcases after me…"

"I… I'm sorry Ranma." 

"Hay, it's not your fault."

"But… but I could have told them before now… and…"

"Naw… it wouldn't of done any good. Besides, ya think they'd believe it anyway if ya told them ya found me in a cave?"

"Oh… well…"

"Come on," He said as he stood up and stretched. "Let's go back, maybe with this Nabiki'll be able to find out more."

Nodoka didn't look happy about it, but she agreed. "Very well, though I would have been proud to call you my son."

"Thanks… an I don't really remember my mom… but I know you'd be a great mom… that is if ya didn't have pops messing things up."

Nodoka just smiled as much as she could. Sadly, she knew Ranma was right. "So… what now?" she asked as she looked at the sky to see that is was getting later in the day and by the time they got home it was going to be near dark and neither one of them had eaten yet.

"Well... I think that we should…" he paused as his stomach growled, loudly. "Um… I think we should get something to eat," he said sheepishly.

She couldn't help it; Nodoka began to laugh as they left the graveyard and all the way to a food cart, especially after Ranma was splashed and became Ranma-chan. For the next several hours the two of them laughed, and ate and made their way back first to her home where Ranma saw his 'mother' to the door after Ranma got some hot water.

"Son… I mean Ranma… you can come in…" 

"Naw, it'll be dark soon and I need to get back to the Tendo's. But I'll be back before ya know it. We need to go to that shrine and see if I can find more than just a few shards." 

"Ok, in that case, good night, son…"

"Night… mom…" Ranma said and then left feeling a lot better than he had in a long time. Smiling, he took to the roofs and roof hopped back to the Tendo Dojo. For a few moments, he just stood along the wall as he looked at the house. "They're the first family I've had in… lets see… I was in my 20's when I joined the academy… and was an officer for a while… then a bounty hunter… and then that damn wormhole … ah hell with it…. The first family I've had in a few thousand years at least." He mumbled wryly since his ship had been buried for a long time, yet he wasn't sure how long.

Jumping down into the yard, Ranma made his way inside. "I'm back!" he called out.

"Nice of you to return Saotome," Nabiki said drolly.

"Oh my, welcome back," Kasumi said with a smile. 

"Where've you been out all day? With one of your bimbo's!" Akane shouted and attacked with a mallet. However, Ranma just stepped past her as she swung without even acknowledging her accusation. Unfortunately, this meant to Akane that she missed and instead of stopping, she ended up tumbling out of the home though the door.

"BOY! You should treat your fiancée better than that! You apologize right now!"

"Oh my poor baby! Ranma how dare you hurt her like that!"

The last two things were said by the fathers as they leaped at Ranma, but when he effortlessly dodged them, causing first Genma then Soün to Land on Akane, Nabiki knew something was up. When Ranma did not even give them a backwards glance, she tried not to smirk. Especially when Akane threw her father one-way, and uncle the other way.

"So Saotome, what happened?" She asked and watched as Akane stalked up behind him as he sat down at the table. "Your -mom- said you'd be gone for most of the day."

Akane stopped suddenly and realized that she did somewhat remember Nodoka saying that earlier. Yet even remembering this, she did not sit back down.

"Well, we talked about a number of things. Oh and you were right." 

"Aren't I usually, but really what am I right about this time?"

He chuckled. "About my blood tests."

Nabiki blinked and sat up straight. "What?"

"Yea, you're right, but it don't help a lot. But I'll tell ya all about that junk later."

"Oh, I see." This really got her interest, and she was definitely going to be asking him about this tonight. 

Akane just fumed, but when asked to sit down by her sisters, she just growled angrily and stomped upstairs. Genma tried to attack Ranma for not apologizing to Akane, but it seemed that Ranma effortlessly tossed him… one handedly… back the way he came… which included the fat marital artist colliding with Soün, and with enough force to still make them both hit the koi pond.

Ranma, Nabiki and Kasumi looked at this in surprise. For the pig-tailed martial artist though, he just looked at his arm and smirked. "Cool… its all coming back…"

"What is?" Kasumi asked as she looked at the fathers.

"Ah nothing much, I'm just remembering the past better now."

To say the least, Nabiki was curious. "I see Saotome, is this one of those things you will tell me later?"

"Um…"

"Consider it a payment on your dept," she said with a wry grin.

"Ok, sure." He said and began eating. However, to eat as he normally did seemed wrong somehow suddenly. So taking his time, Ranma enjoyed his meal causing the two elder Tendo daughters to look at him strangely. 

Later that evening when everyone else had gone to sleep, Ranma slipped out of his room though the window and made his way over to Nabiki's open window. Stepping inside he was surprised to see her sitting in her chair by the desk glaring at him.

"Normal people tend to use doors, why do you insist on the window?"

Ranma gave her a sheepish look, "Um, 'cause I'm not normal." 

Nabiki grinned at that. "That's an understatement, so what's going on?"

"I'm not a Saotome," he told her simply and with a grin.

"What?"

"Mom took me to this graveyard and showed me my tombstone."

Nabiki eyes were wide at hearing this. "You mean she's going to make you go though with the contract? She already has your grave and tombstone picked out?" She couldn't believe it; this was just too much. 

"Naw," Ranma told her with a wave of his hand. "You see, mom told me that Ranma Saotome died at birth." He picked up his birth certificate from her desk. "This is the real Ranma Saotome, but he died the day he was born."

"But…" Nabiki was surprised, Ranma dead… then who was talking to her? 

"Our fathers… um… well your father and pops were out on one of their training trips when mom had to get to the hospital…" 

"On the day you were born?"

"On the day Ranma was born. She said something about something being wrong and then when they told her that Ranma was dead she got real depressed." Ranma was trying to hold back his own tears as he recalled how hurt his mom looked as she told this.

"But… how… and…" 

"After Ranma's funeral and all… oh yea…" he stopped and picked up a piece of paper and wrote some directions on it. 

"What's this?"

"Ranma's tombstone…" 

Nabiki's eyes got wide at that and she looked at the directions before her. "You're serious… really serious…" 

"Yea, and after my funeral since pop's wasn't home yet, she went to a family shrine in the mountains."

"Ranma…" 

"Yea?"

"Do you know how creepy it is listening to you talk about your own grave and burial?"

"That's nothing… you know how weird it is to be looking at your own headstone and finding out that you died at birth?"

"Oh…" 

"Yea, it was really weird." Nabiki could only imagine what it much have been like so she just stared at him as he spoke. "Anyway, mom told me that while at the shrine she felt something calling to her so she went into the caves nearby, and that's when she found me."

"Found you?"

"Yea, she found me surrounded by these crystals…" he said and handed her a few of them.

Nabiki's eyes opened wide as she looked at them, they looked like rubies, but they were much too big, and the wrong color for quartz.

Letting her look over the crystal fragments, he told her softly, "Here's where things get weird."

"Sao… Um Ranma I'm not sure it can get weirder than this."

"Believe me, it does. You see, when she found me, even though I looked like an infant, I was really well over twenty." Even as he told her this he had a grin and could not help but think that he was well over the age of the old letch.

Nabiki though just looked at him and raised one of her eyebrows. "Oh really?"

"Yea, you see this…" he then showed her the golden bracer on his left arm. Of course, with showing her that, her eyes nearly fell out of her head.

"That… that… that's real gold…" she said as she began appraising the bracer. She could tell that the bracer was gold, or gold plated, as it looked tougher than gold. The engraving of the horse was very intricate as well, which must have been done by a master. And to top it off, the eyes of the horse she knew for a fact were rubies. This little trinket would be worth millions of yen.

"Yea, the bracer is a construct of Titanium, platinum and two other metals not found on this world. After the image had been engraved, I dipped it into molten gold and then polished it to a fine gloss. The eyes are close to rubies, but they hold much more than that. They are data crystals that I used for backup storage of my memories as well as for my computer system."

Nabiki blinked and looked at him as though he had grown eight heads. "Riiight… there's no way that this could hold a computer, and there's no way that…"

After her first remark, Ranma touched one of the eyes on the bracer and a micro thin laptop appeared to hover just a little in front of him. When Ranma began typing on it Nabiki's eyes grew larger as she could see the 'keys' light up with each press, but the thing was so thin it was transparent. The screen was as thin as the keyboard, which allowed her to see what was on it just as easily. Shakily she asked, "H-how?"

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised, after everything I've gone though… I'm not even completely human…"

"Then what are you?"

"Best I can tell is that I am humanoid in appearance, but I can't remember what planet I'm from."

"Planet?"

"Yea, I'm not even from earth." He chuckled at her wide-eyed look. "Those crystals in your hand were a part of my ship that crashed here a long time ago."

"How long?"

"Near as I can tell, my ship put me in suspended animation when we were about to crash, and that created the caves that mom found me in."

"But to make a cave in a mountain that would have to be some crash and the trees around would have been destroyed, not only that but with a crash that big it would have been on the news!" She tried to think of as many things as she could as to why this was impossible.

"Yea, but I think I've been there a lot longer than that. Mom said that she used to play in the caves as a kid and never found me… and if the caves were there when she was a kid and never knew what caused it, then it must've been a lot longer than that."

"How old are you?"

"Near as I can tell I was in my twenties when I crashed, and have been asleep for who knows how long and then I got to relive my first sixteen years again." He then shrugged. "I'd actually have to find the rest of my ship to tell for sure." 

Nabiki sat back in her chair. "Then this is it… you're not Ranma Saotome… your mom never filed the adoption paperwork so Ranma does not even exist… all the promises your father made were for his son… so the only ones you have to worry about are the Kunö's and the Amazons. But if you have a ship, you can just fly off this rock and never look back." Now that she said it, she didn't like the thought of him leaving.

"Yea… I guess. Though I'll miss this place."

"So when are you going to go to this shrine?"

"Haven't decided… but tomorrow don't sound bad. If I can find the place."

"Why not just ask Auntie where it is?"

Ranma nodded his head and grinned. "Sounds good, I'll leave for her place in the morning and then go from there."

Nabiki smiled then turned contemplative. "Ranma…"

"Yea?"

"Can I go with you?"

"What?"

"I… I have to see this, it's too amazing t think about and I need proof that this is real." 

Ranma thought about it and then nodded his head. "Ok, but I'm gonna leave early in the mornin', so you better be ready to go."

"I'll be ready!" She said with a grin. She couldn't wait… a real live spaceship! If she could get some pictures of this when Ranma leaves, she could be very rich! When she noticed Ranma leaving her room she then realized, that if this was real, then he would be leaving, and she'd never see him again. 'Damn…'


	5. Lets take a little trip

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." Although I've had many ideas for them lately. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

-

Very early the next morning, even before Kasumi awoke, Ranma was awake, packed and ready to go. He debated about waking up Nabiki but in the end decided against it. 'Just let her sleep, she never was much of a morning person,' he thought as he shouldered his pack and crept down the stairs.

However just as he was reaching for his shoes he heard a familiar voice, "Just where do you think you're going?"

Ranma jumped and spun around only to see Nabiki fully dressed and ready to go sitting at the table sipping on a cup of coffee. "Um…"

"You said I'd better be ready to go, and here you are trying to leave without me."

"I… But… ok, come on…" He finally said and slipped on his shoes. Nabiki smirked at him and slipped on her shoes as well. When she walked out the door carrying the cup, he stopped her. "Ain't ya gonna lave that here?"

"What ever for?" Nabiki asked and showed him that it was a disposable cup. "You aren't suggesting that I make Kasumi wash this are you?"

He just grinned, "Naw, come on lets go before anyone else wakes up."

With that, the two teens left the Tendo home even before the Kasumi awoke for her normal morning duties. Because of the distance that they had to cover, Nabiki convinced Ranma of the need to take the train so they could save their strength for later with only a marginal complaint from him. However when they arrived at his mother's home even faster than walking he could not help but say she was right, to which she replied, "I know."

"Yea, anyway… I wonder where this shrine is?"

"Since you said it was in the mountains, it may take us most of the day just to get there."

"Not if I ran all the way."

"And what? You'd leave me all alone, and helpless?" She asked with a tremor to her lips.

Ranma just looked at her and sighed, "No… I won't leave you alone but you ain't helpless either."

Instantly Nabiki was back to normal, "I'm glad you see that; now are you going to knock or will I?"

"Yeah, yeah…" he said as they stepped up to his mothers' front door. After knocking, he looked around and smiled at seeing the first ray's of the sun breaking over the horizon. "Pop's and Kasumi must just be getting up about now," he mumbled.

Nabiki just smiled, but before she could comment, the door opened. "Yes?" The Saotome matriarch asked as she looked at the two teens standing on her doorstep this early in the morning.

"Mom, are you ok?" Ranma asked as his mom looked disheveled and tired. Instead of her normal kimono, she was wearing a long robe that looked to be hastily put on and tied.

"Huh…. Ranma?" She asked then instantly she was wide-awake and smiling. "Oh Ranma my son!" Not to mention giving her son a hug that put an Amazon's glomp to shame.

Nabiki snickered then tapped the woman on the shoulder. "Auntie… you might want to let go of him?"

"Huh why?" She asked.

"Because he's turning a fair shade of purple!"

"Oh… oh dear!" She said and suddenly let go of her son who started coughing and sucking in as much air as his lungs could handle. "I'm so sorry my son!"

"It's no problem… just took me by surprise…" He gasped out.

"Oh dear, where are my manners; please, Ranma, Nabiki, won't you come in?"

"Sure mom," Ranma replied that earned him a beaming smile from her.

"That sounds good Auntie." Nabiki said as she too entered.

After breakfast was served, Nodoka quickly dressed and then returned to see the two teens eating slowly. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"It's no problem," Nabiki told her with a smile.

"Sorry about stoppin' by like this mom, but when you told me to come by anytime… I guess… I…"

"No! No... It's alright." She told him with a smile. "I just don't normally get up this early, but you can come by anytime, even in the middle of the night." The two smiled at her, which she returned with equal care. Sitting at the table, she ate a little breakfast and was pleased to see that Ranma had not eaten everything while she was gone. However, when she noticed the contemplative look on his face, as well as the expectant look in Nabiki's eyes, she asked, "Ranma, was there a reason you stopped by so early?"

"Yea mom, ya see, me an Nabiki…"

"You mean Nabiki and I," his mother corrected.

"Yeah, you can come too, but we were wondering where that shrine was?"

Nabiki tried to stifle her giggle at what he said while his mother just blinked at him. "Well…" She started but was reasonably confused about his wording. "The shrine is in the mountains to the north of here… it would take some time to travel there."

"How long is that? A few hours, days, weeks?"

"Oh dear, no just several hours. If we leave soon we should get there by dinner time."

"Ok, then lets go!" He said excitably causing the two females present to laugh a moment.

Less than an hour later the three were on the way to the nearest train station and then northward bound. Be it to wait on a different train or to eat a little, their trip to the shrine took several hours as they stopped several times. And as predicted, the three arrived at the mountain shrine by dinnertime. Unfortunately, for Nabiki, this shrine was a good distance away from everything, which included electricity, running water and signal for her cell phone.

-

Pleased, happy, ecstatic… would be three of the words to describe the youngest Tendo's morning. Not only was she able to do her mourning routine without being interrupted or insulted, she also didn't have to put up with Ranma's usual insults at the breakfast table. The fact that the insults went both ways never entered her mind. Instead, she was just happy to have a nice, relaxing morning without 'his' presence. Her good mood carried over to school, as she didn't have Ranma in her way as she dealt with the perverts at school, otherwise known as the boys at school.

One pervert, uh male, she decided to grace with her presence in the form of a foot to the face before the poetry speaking insane kendoist could even begin his morning tirade. To Akane, this was a wonderful day. Or at least until class started and she didn't see Ranma around for school. 'That jerk… skipping school again,' she thought and tried to banish those thoughts, as she was not going to let thoughts of that insensitive jerk ruin her good mood.

"Akane…" she heard someone whisper. Looking over she noticed Ukyo trying to look busy.

"What?" Akane asked hoping this was not going to be about Ranma.

"Have you seen Ra-chan today?"

Valiantly the youngest Tendo tried to control her temper. "Thankfully no."

The chef cast an annoyed glare then asked. "You don't think that Chinese hussy got him do you?"

Gritting her teeth, the shorthaired girl bit back her angry reply, "Why would I care where that jerk is?"

"Miss Tendo…"

Akane didn't notice who called her name and she replied louder. "I don't care where that insensitive jerk is! For all I care he could just go away and die!" As she spoke her voice rose louder until the students' three classes over could hear.

"Miss Tendo!"

"What?" Akane angrily asked then turning, realized too late that she was yelling at the teacher. "Oops…"

"Hall… buckets… now…" The angry teacher said pointing to the empty hallway.

Bowing her head, Akane took the buckets into the hall and waited. Her thoughts once again turning to the annoying boy whose fault this was. And sadly, Akane's good mood was ruined for the rest of the day.

By lunchtime, Akane was a volcano ready to erupt. "Where's that baka?" She asked her friends who could only say they didn't know. However, her mood only darkened when she tried to find Nabiki only to be informed that the she hadn't made it to school either. "ARGH! That Baka! If he's hurt Nabiki he's going to get it!"

Her dark mood only became worse when she heard the familiar ring-ring of a bicycle bell followed by the arrival of a purple haired Amazon. "Ai-yah! Kitchen-destroyer see Shampoo airen?"

Akane growled then shouted at the Amazon, "No I haven't seen that stupid baka!"

"Akane, do you know where Nabiki is?" Ukyo asked, as she approached the girl that was reaching critical mass.

"ARGH!" Akane really was beginning to hate today. "I don't know! I didn't see them at breakfast and neither of them are here… so do you think I know where they went? For all I know those two ran off together and got married!" Even as those words left her mouth, Akane knew that this was going to get much worse than better.

"WHAT?" Ukyo said in shock.

"Sneaky-mercenary girl need taught lesson not to mess with Shampoo Airen…" The girl said and then raced off towards the dojo.

"Oh no… Shampoo wait!" Akane shouted and took off running after Shampoo.

Ukyo had been gritting her teeth, but when Shampoo and then Akane left, she too shrugged off school and ran towards the dojo to find her Ra-chan.

Seeing the three leave, Kunö wondered what was going on as he pondered what was said, and then as if lightening hit his noble personage he understood completely. "Verily, if the foul Saotome has indeed taken the sister of my Fierce Tigress for himself, then this must mean that he has given up on my loves… Oh wait for me oh fiery tigress!"

Many other students looked on in amazement; though, a few of them went to some of the girls Nabiki knew to collect their winnings as obviously Ranma and Nabiki had left to be together.

As expected, Shampoo arrived at the Tendo home first, but she had to stop in her tracks as she realized that she didn't know which room was Nabiki's. Looking at the windows she thought, 'That room is Akane's… and that one is Ranma's… so which one…'

"Shampoo wait!"

Groaning the Amazon turned to Akane. "What you want?"

Panting Akane can running up towards the Amazon. "I… just…" For a moment, Akane stopped to think of how she should tell her that Nabiki and Ranma weren't home. If she just said so, then she knew that Shampoo wouldn't believe her. However if she said they were home then it would only make things worse. 'Ahhh I hate this!' she mentally ranted.

"What are you two doing here... I thought you said they weren't home?" Ukyo asked as she ran up to the two girls.

"I did! I…"

"Oh my… Akane shouldn't you be in school?" The voice of Kasumi broke the three out of their stale mate.

"Kasumi, have you seen Ra-chan around anywhere?"

"Oh… I can't say I have… he wasn't at breakfast this morning either."

"Ra-chan… skipped breakfast?" To say the least, Ukyo was shocked.

"Have seen mercenary-girl?"

"Oh do you mean Nabiki…" Kasumi asked then shook her head. "No… she was missing from breakfast as well. I thought she went to school rather early."

"Do you know where they went?" Akane finally asked, but Kasumi just shook her head.

"I'm sorry little sister, but perhaps we should look in their rooms?"

The three fiancée's looked at each other then nodded before racing inside with Akane in the lead. Quickly the three looked though Ranma's room but found nothing, not even his pack, which filled them all with dread. In Nabiki's room, though they found a lot of documents pertaining to Ranma's many fiancées, even a copy of the Amazon book of laws.

"Shampoo wonder where she put that…" She mumbled as she picked it up. However, what caught her eye was the parts that were marked about multiple Amazons wishing to wed a single male. "This no look good…" she uttered quietly.

Ukyo found in the stack of papers a written account of the deal made between her father and Ranma's… as well as documents supporting and refuting the claim. "What does she think she's doing?"

The youngest Tendo found only one item that drew her attention. A simple piece of paper with directions written in Ranma's messy style. "I… I don't believe it…"

"Where is she!" the voice of an insane and now mad gymnast shouted from the doorway. "Where is that... that…" for the first time in her life, Kodachi found herself lacking for a word to describe her true feelings for Nabiki.

"She's gone…" Akane mumbled a little too loud.

"Gone where?" Ukyo, Kodachi and Shampoo wanted to know.

"I found this… its directions to something…"

"Possibly where she hid whatever blackmail she's holding over my Ra-chan!"

Before Shampoo or Kodachi could start to argue over that Akane answered, "No… it's written by him…"

"WHAT?" three voices shouted.

"He… that jerk! He ran off with my sister!" Akane suddenly shouted in feminine outrage once she jumped to the conclusion that with this note in Ranma's handwriting, then he must have given it to her so they could meet somewhere in secret. "You JERK! I'll kill you for this!" She shouted and quickly left the room.

"What that about?" Shampoo asked Ukyo.

"I've no clue… but if she thinks she can run off without me…" the chef trained off as she quickly left Nabiki's room to follow Akane. She was followed by Shampoo then Kodachi as she tried to piece things together.

It was several minutes after the females had left that Tatewaki Kunö, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School arrived at the Tendo home with roses in hand for both of his beloveds. "Akane Tendo! Pig-Tailed-Girl! Fear not for I am here!"

"Oh my…" Kasumi said as she noticed him. "I'm sorry, but they are not here right now."

"Verily they have gone in search of myself!"

"Um… well Akane did go looking for…"

"Say no more fair maiden, I shall go and find Akane so she no longer has to look for me!" And so saying, Kunö rushed off, in the wrong direction before Kasumi could point out to him where Akane and Ranma's other fiancées had gone.

-

Somewhere, far from the estrogen brigade, Ranma and Nabiki got a chill up their spines followed by dual sneezing fits.

-

After a few hours to get to the destination, none of the four expected the rendezvous to be located in a graveyard.

"How… quaint…" Kodachi said as she dully looked over the place.

"Akane… you sure Ranma honey's directions led here?"

"Yea… this is the place… and why did you all follow me?"

"Shampoo come take Airen back from sneaky-girl."

"If Nabiki thinks that she can take Ranma from me without a fight, she's got another thing coming!" Ukyo said proudly.

"Oh, fine, whatever…" Akane told them and then followed the directions into the graveyard… up a small hill and over to… "A grave marker… they were to meet at a grave marker?"

"You know… I always thought Nabiki was kind of odd, but this…" The chef said as she looked around.

"What kind of place is this to take my Ranma-sama?"

"What that say?" shampoo asked as she pointed to the marker they were standing before.

"Don't you know how to read… it says… 'Ranma Saotome. My precious child…'" She was going to continue, but those four words grabbed all of their attentions. "Ranma…"

"Ra-chan…"

"Airen…"

"Ranma-sama? How… how could you… how… this is not real!"

"Sugar… I think it's real… look at the dates… Ra-chan… Ranma… died the day he was born."

"But… but… then who… and…"

"I… then who is… is…" Kodachi was going to ask who her Ranma-sama was, but that was a bit much for the gymnast.

"Who was I friends with back then… who was it that my father engaged me to… if… if Ranma's dead?"

"Never mind that… who's been staying in my house!" All eyes turned to Akane. "If Ranma…" she pointed to the grave stone, "is dead… then who did that stupid panda bring into my house!" No one felt they should correct Akane on that it wasn't her house, but they had the same questions going though their minds.

"Did his parents adopt him?" Kodachi asked meekly, though no one noticed that all traces of her insanity were gone.

"Auntie never said anything about it… and that panda keeps telling us that Ranma is his kid…"

"Shampoo not sure she understand… but if Ranma no live… then why they name new boy Ranma?"

That, no one had an answer to. For almost an hour the four stood there, looking at the gravestone, lost in thought. Then slowly, as the light began to wean, the four left quietly and made their way back to their homes. Though this time, they all moved at a much slower pace with many thoughts confusing and sad. One thought above all others seemed to hit each girl that night with a repetitive yet clear statement. 'Ranma… wasn't Ranma!'

Upon arriving back in Nerima the four had come up with a simple but easy to follow plan. "I shall find out the truth about Ranma-sama… um… about Ranma… I have to know if he died, or was adopted." Kodachi said to which the others nodded.

"And you're going to ask that stupid panda about Ra-chan, right Akane?" Ukyo asked.

"You better believe it! That jerk, telling us that Ranma is his son!"

"And Shampoo ask Great-grandmother some things too."

"Like what sugar?"

"Not Sugar, she in village."

Ukyo and the others blinked then just shook their heads with a sigh. "Whatever."

Slowly the four parted ways and returned to their homes. Once Ukyo got to her restaurant, she called her father to tell him about this and ask what she should do.

For Shampoo, she returned to the Cat Café and after being scolded by Cologne for being gone all day she informed the elder of what she had discovered, not only in the middle Tendo's room, but at the graveyard as well. "Shampoo…"

"Yes Great-grandmother?"

"This does not bode, well… for now we will wait and watch. If what you say is true about what Nabiki has been looking at, you may very well have to share son-in-law, however if Ranma has been adopted, then you may not have to worry about the Tendo's or the Kuonji girl."

Shampoo did look happier about that and quickly went to work getting things ready for the next day.

"Sasuke!" Kodachi yelled upon arrive home.

"Yes mistress?" The ninja asked after popping up in front of her.

"I have a job for you. I don't care where you have to go to get this information, but I want you to find out if Ranma…" she paused and took a deep breath, "…died at birth or was adopted."

Hearing this, the small ninja almost fell flat on his face. "Mistress!"

"I… I saw Ranma's grave today…"

Sasuke blinked and looked at her with wide eyes, only now noticing that the wild maniacal look in them has faded. "Where?"

"In a graveyard a distance away… it… it took most of the day to get there and return. It said… It said that my Ranma-sama died at birth… but that cannot be true… he 'is' real… I know it… I could feel it when he caught me… please… find out everything you can."

Never had he been asked like this, and to his recollection, he had never been asked politely to find out something. But seeing the state she was in, as well as how she was asking, he determined not to fail her in this. "I will find all I can," he told her with a deep bow before leaving.

By the time Akane arrived home, she had lost the anger that she had when she last talked to the other three girls. Now, instead of anger, she felt confused, and unsure about a number of things. Her confusion only grew when she finally returned home and talked to Kasumi. When Akane told her about the grave, the elder Tendo was shocked, and then sighed saying, "I was wondering about his tests."

"Tests?"

"Oh my, I forgot to tell you in all the excitement." Kasumi told her and then informed her little sister about what she and Nabiki found out about Ranma's blood type. However, this information only had Akane even more confused. It to her, proved that Ranma did die at birth and was replaced, but why did they as Shampoo said, name the 'new' son Ranma as well?

And so, instead of confronting Genma about his son, Akane went to sleep thinking and wondering about Ranma… who he really was… and what to do about it.

-

"Ugh… how did they survive like this?"

Ranma snickered at her. "Problem Nabiki?"

"Yes! Just look at this place! There's no lights, no heat and most importantly no water!"

"Oh dear, but Nabiki we do have water here." Nodoka then turned to her son, "Ranma would you take that bucket," she said pointing to a rather large bucket that came up to his knees. "And go to the well over there, and get us some water." As she pointed to the well, Ranma looked at the building built around it that protected it.

"Our… I mean my ancestors lived very simply. They did not need to live extravagantly. However, they did like to keep things protected. That well house was built many years ago to keep leaves and other things from falling into it." Just as she was about to enter the house she stopped a moment. "Oh and do be careful, the water can be extremely cold."

Ranma gulped at that, and set off to get the water. He was surprised that the door was easily opened as well as being very clean on the inside. There were a few cobwebs, but none were around the well itself. Unfortunately, for Ranma though, even with the warning, he still ended up getting some water on him. So Ranma-chan carried the bucket back towards the house grumbling at how cold the water was.

Upon entering the house, Ranma noticed that Nodoka and Nabiki were trying to get a fire started. With a smirk she approached them, "Let me try…" she said and a quick application of some hot ki they had a nice warm fire going. "So when are we going to see the cave?"

"Not until the morning."

"What?" he, currently a she asked.

"It is too dark and dangerous to go stumbling around at night. That is unless you want Nabiki to get hurt?"

"Ah… no…" Ranma said with a sigh.

Nabiki though was not paying attention to the conversation, instead she was holding a small device in her hands and muttering words that made Ranma wonder where she learned to swear in American. Finally, Nabiki gave up whatever she was doing and joined the other two. "I can't get a signal on my phone… these mountains must be blocking the signal."

Nodoka nodded her head, "I believe the nearest tower for those things was in the last town we were at…"

Sighing Nabiki asked, "You mean the one that took us an hour in that filthy cab to get away from?" Upon seeing the woman nod her head, Nabiki glared at Ranma. "When we find your ship, we are taking it back! I am not going to ride in that… that… thing again!"

Ranma chuckled nervously. "Well… um… without a phone how would we even call a cab from here?"

Nabiki's eyes went wide and then narrowed at Ranma-chan. "I will not walk that distance… if we don't find your ship; you are going to carry me back."

"Um… I… ok…"

Off to the side Nodoka could not help but laugh at the middle Tendo. "But dear, it's only a few miles."

The girl groaned, "Ugh, martial artists… can't there be a single martial artist that knows how to use modern convinces?"

Ranma just chuckled and used a little of the water to turn male again. For some time Ranma thought everything was right with the world, he was with his mom, they were going to be finding his ship that was lost in the mountains and having fun finally able to pay Nabiki back some. Or at least it was fun until they had prepared for bed not far from the fire to go to sleep. That was when Ranma realized Nabiki new nothing about camping as her nightshirt, while thick for city wear, was nowhere near enough to keep her warm in the mountains.

"Um Nabiki?"

"What now Ranma?" She asked tiredly as she just wanted to go to bed.

"Um… do you wanna borrow some of my stuff?"

"Why?" She asked suspiciously.

"Cause I don't think that's gonna keep you very warm in here."

She looked down at herself then at what Nodoka was wearing and cursed to herself. "You could've warned me."

"Well... I..."

"Don't worry Nabiki dear, all we have to do is sleep close to each other to keep warm."

She looked at the older woman in something akin to fear. "What?"

"While we sleep the fire will go out, no matter what we do. But if we all sleep close together, then we can all stay warm." Nabiki groaned loudly though Ranma was just looking at his mother with wide eyes. Setting up her sleeping bag, she patted the area to her left. "Here Nabiki, sleep next to me and Ranma you sleep on the other side of her, that way she will not get cold. I'd hate for her to get sick on this trip."

Realizing that she had little to no choice, Nabiki did as she was asked. However, after lying down she noticed that while Nodoka and she had sleeping bags, Ranma just had a rolled up blanket. "Ranma, don't you have one of these?"

"Naw," he told her and laid down placing the blanket over him. "This blanket has always been good enough, besides after I learned to channel my ki to start a fire I couldn't stand more than this covering me."

"Oh?" both females asked.

"Yea, I feel like I'm being smothered when I'm in one of those things…"

The two let it drop for now and soon the three of them were fast asleep. However not long after the fire went out, Nabiki began to shiver even in her insulated sleeping bag. Sleepily she searched out warmth and after finding it, she pulled herself closer to it and slept peacefully though the night without a single chill or care.

-

To be Continued…


	6. Heartache

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." I am working on them, though progress is slow. Between work, friends demanding I leave the house occasionally and a multitude of unfinished works, things just keep proceeding slowly.

Also, if anyone is interested, I post my stories to Zorch's Blog-o-Rama as well as to the yahoo groups Fan Fics R Us and Anime-Fiction-ML to be pre-read and such before they are released.

And now: Heartache

Um… Mistress…" The small ninja known as Sasuke said softly as he tried to rouse Kodachi from her slumber.

"Ummm…."

"Mistress… I have the information you asked for… about Ranma…"

Instantly the slumbering Black Rose was awake. "Tell me!"

Picking himself up off the floor from where he had fallen to after her awakening, the Ninja placed several documents in front of her on the bed. "Um… I'm not sure how this is possible, but Ranma Saotome does not exist."

"Explain…" Kodachi said as she tried to read the various legal documents though she had just awakened.

"Well, this is his birth certificate, but this one is from when he died… at birth just as you stated."

"I… I see."

Pointing to another one he told her, "Yes and here is where his mother arranged for him to be buried." As he showed her this, the gymnast's eyes went wide.

"This is it; this is where we were yesterday!"

"Ah… yes and since that time there have been no adoption paperwork and according to the registers office, there is no longer a Saotome Ranma on the Saotome family register."

"This… this cannot be… then who…"

"I don't know, and the register doesn't either." He then handed her another sheet this one was the supposed wedding paperwork that Ranma's father tried to file several times, only to have it rejected. "Every time Mr. Saotome tried to file the marriage certificate of Ranma to the Tendo girl, it was rejected."

"But… the wedding… we… I mean…" Needless to say, Kodachi was beside herself with all this information.

"These certificates his father tried to push though several times, only to have it rejected. I can only guess that he thought a public wedding would make it go though…"

He did not have to say that the public wedding was a failure, as she already knew this. But to see it in writing was causing chills to go up her spine. "So there is no Ranma… so who is he?"

"I do not know mistress; do you wish me to keep looking for this information?"

"Yes… and Sasuke…"

"Yes Mistress?"

"Thanks."

He blinked at that and then smiled. "It has been an honor."

Kodachi then leaned back in her bed and decided not to go to school.

However, in another part of town, a young girl was wishing she could stay home. "But Kasumi! I don't want to go to school!"

"Oh my, but Akane, it's a school day," the eldest Tendo daughter said sounding slightly disappointed.

"I… but…" Akane stammered then sighed. "Fine… but where's Mr. Saotome?"

Kasumi blinked at the way her sister called him that. "I believe that uncle Saotome is sleeping."

"That jerk…" her insult caused Kasumi to stop what she was doing as most of Akane's insults were directed at Ranma and not his father, but before she could bring it up, the youngest Tendo continued her rant. "How could he do this to us? He had to of known about his "son"! But he tried to pass him … a total stranger … off on us like that! Just when I was starting to like the jerk… this happens!"

"Oh my, but wasn't Ranma adopted?"

That caused Akane to stop her rant and think for a moment before throwing her hands up in the air. "I don't know, but if Ranma died at birth, then why did they name … him … Ranma too?"

"Oh … Oh my … I never thought about that."

"And another thing, why does he keep telling us that Ranma is 'his' son, when Ranma is adopted?"

"I … I don't know."

Akane lost the anger that she had built up as her shoulders suddenly slumped. "I just don't know what to think anymore big-sister … I … I mean Ranma's not really Ranma… and… and what do I do now?"

Seeing her sisters shoulders begin to tremble, Kasumi moved quickly, while wrapping her arms around her little sister, she pulled the girl towards herself. However, for the life of her, she was not sure what to say about this situation.

For her part, Akane accepted the embrace and held onto her sister as her tears began to fall. There were not many times in her life when she felt this lost, and confused. The first was when she lost her mother, and then again when the Saotome's showed up. And ever since they arrived, she has felt she was on an out of control ride. Unfortunately, this has put her in an unexpected loop and she wasn't sure what she should hold onto for support.

'I'm so sorry Akane,' Kasumi thought as Akane finally let her tears fall. However, the ringing of the phone interrupted the quiet reprieve. At first Kasumi wanted to ignore the phone, but when Akane moved away, she reluctantly went to answer it.

For the youngest Tendo, she tried to get her emotions back under control as well as dry up her tears while her sister was on the phone. 'Kami this is so messed up,' she thought before letting out a tired sigh.

"Akane…"

"Yeah Kasumi," she responded before looking up to see a strange look on Kasumi's face. "What's wrong?"

"I… I just got off the phone with Kodachi…"

This gave her pause, as she had never heard of the insane gymnast ever using the phone. "And?"

"She… she asked for you to meet her at Ukyo's café this morning."

"Is she feeling alright?"

Kasumi hesitated a moment before speaking, "I don't know, but she sounded very serious."

"Her? Serious?"

"Yes, she sounded very serious."

This began to sound questionable to Akane, and right now, all she wanted to do was go somewhere private and think. "Was she laughing?"

"No, she sounded… solemn." Kasumi herself looked a little confused, but she had been asked, and asked nicely, to relay the message so she was a bit out of sorts considering who was asking this.

"That's strange… so is Kuno-baka going to be there?"

The eldest daughter tilted her head in thought, "I believe she said that he will be in school today."

"Well as long as I don't have to put up with him," Akane mumbled and got her things ready to leave.

"Oh and Akane…"

"Yes?"

Remembering that the fathers had gone out drinking hard all night, she made a hasty decision. "I will make sure that father and uncle stay away from the sake until you are ready to talk to them."

"Ok, thanks… and tell Nabiki when she comes down that I'd like to talk to her," Akane told her sister as she left quickly.

Unfortunately, she left before Kasumi could tell her that neither Ranma nor Nabiki came home last night. "Oh my, I hope she does not get too upset with them."

The Tendo's had not been the only ones to receive an early morning call. The Amazon's as well as Ukyo received one as well, and it had been Ukyo who suggested using her place as it would be unlikely that Mousse, Kuno or anyone else would look for the four of them at her restaurant. Soon enough Shampoo, Ukyo and Akane were sitting at a table in the middle of the dining area with Kodachi handing them a series of papers and explaining them.

In the mountains quite some distance from Nerima, a young mother was preparing lunch for two adventuring teens. However, ever few steps, she would stop and grin almost insanely before schooling her features and continuing with her preparations. The reason for her grin was simple. When she had awaken this morning, she had found Nabiki curled up close, and even sharing a blanket with her adopted son, and both of them were sleeping with peaceful smiles on their faces. "And once they awoke…" she said with a smile and a wistful expression on her face.

The morning and the day had been an exercise in awkwardness, at least for said teens. Waking up in each other's arms was bad enough; but having to eat breakfast, and get dressed all the while being constantly reminded of it by a winking mother was making them both too embarrassed for words.

For Ranma it was an effort to keep from blushing all the time. He'd had a wonderful nights sleep, and was not rudely awakened by being tossed out a window, or splashed with cold water, or any other ways… he had woke up feeling relaxed, refreshed, and above all comfortable. Or at least he was until he noticed Nabiki using him for a pillow.

Nabiki prided herself on being able to stay so close to the chaos that was all around Ranma and not wind up in the center of it. For a brief time she was engaged to him and after nearly being killed, she had sworn to not get that close again. And yet she was sleeping curled up against him! And the worst part was that she enjoyed it… immensely.

So waking up, and breakfast had been trying, but right now, the hardest thing was keeping her mind on what was going on around her and not freaking out. 'I'm not scared of the dark… I'm not scared of being in a cave… I'm not scared…' she kept mentally repeating as she squeezed Ranma's hand.

Meanwhile, he was regretting offering to let her hold his hand as they explored the cave he supposedly was found in. When they had approached the cave with a set of flashlights, she began to act nervous. After going only 30 feet into the cave, he noticed she was trembling, but she refused to leave. So he offered to let her hold his hand not to calm her, but to help guide her. 'Yeah right,' he said mentally. 'If I would've said here hold my hand so you'll stop being scared she would've hit me harder than Akane does.'

Looking back at the still trembling Tendo, he could not help but feel bad for even pushing her into coming into the cave with him. 'But she said she wanted to see it, and… and… I don't think I could've gone in by myself…' he finally said, at least mentally.

"H-How m-mu…" she stopped and cleared her throat. "The air's too musty in here… I had something in my throat," she stated simply though her grip seemed to tighten on his hand as if daring him to argue with her. "How much further is it?"

Ranma just smiled at her. "Not far…" he said and brought up his hand… still being held by hers and activated a scanner of some sort from the bracer. The scanner resembled a flat opaque monitor that seemed to hover before them pointing the direction to go. "I think we'll be there in the next thirty minutes or so."

"T-thirty minutes?"

Ten minutes later in the absolute darkness of the cave, Nabiki was almost plastered to his side, and not ten minutes later, she was clinging to him with both hands. "I'm not scared of the dark… I'm not scared of enclosed spaces…" she kept mumbling not realizing that in their extreme closeness and with no other sounds than their breathing and heartbeats he would have no trouble hearing her.

Not only was Ranma able to hear her, he was able to hear it as though she were shouting it at him and it made him feel horrible for bringing her into the place. 'I'm sorry…' he told her mentally. 'I didn't know you'd be scared of a cave… but I guess you've never been in one to know either,' he said mentally and wished he was not such a chicken and could actually say something to her, anything to help calm her down.

After an eternity to Nabiki, they finally found what they were looking for. A small side tunnel that had a number of the crystal shards around. "I think this is it."

"Oooo…kkk… I… I mean g-good… I…" Nabiki was almost beside herself in terror, as even facing his fiancée's was not as bad as this. Here she could see nothing, at least with them she had some control some ability to see and plan.

"It's really musty here… I'm gonna see if I can find what we came for, ok?"

"O-ok…" Nabiki said and kept shaking.

However, after several long agonizing minutes that seemed like hours, he'd made no progress. "There's too many rocks… We should leave and…"

"N-no… we're not coming back… just… just hit it with something and let's get out of here."

"Um… ok. I can hit it with my ki or something."

"J-just do it!"

Nodding quickly Ranma began using small bursts of his ki to break apart the rocks as he only had use of one hand. His other was in danger of being crushed by her still. When the rock was cleared away, Ranma saw what he was after, a large black egg that was roughly about 20 to 30 centimeters tall and almost half that wide. Reaching in for it he smiled as he pulled it out. "Alright I… oh KUSO!"

Before Nabiki had even had a chance to see the thing, something was forced into her hands a moment before she was grabbed by Ranma, and forced down on the floor. And then everything went dark followed by a loud rumbling noise. "OH KAMI! Ranma! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! Get me outta here!" Nabiki, the normally calm, collected and mercenary of Furinkan screamed as tears fell from here eyes.

For several long moments all Ranma could hear was the rumbling of rocks falling, which was almost drowned out by Nabiki's horrified screaming. And even after the rocks stopped falling, Nabiki continued to scream out for Ranma to save her. "Nabiki…. Nabiki!" He tried calling but she was too far gone in her panic. He knew she was right below him; he could feel her moving as well as feel her breath as she screamed and cried out that she didn't want to die. For Ranma he was almost panicking as well. Being in the total darkness for so long reminded him so much of his training with the neko-ken. But because Nabiki was there, he knew he had to protect her… he had to survive this. He had to… he would not let her down.

Straining to keep the rocks that had fallen from the ceiling and were now resting on his back from hurting her, he shifted the weight as much as he could so that he could touch her arm. Finally, after several minutes of not only listening to the girl whimper despite his assurances and keeping the weight on his back from crushing them, he was able to touch her hand. "Nabiki… I'm here... you're ok!" Though he neglected to tell her he was not sure for how long.

"Ranma… Ranma!" The girl shouted and clung to his arm. "Please don't let me die… please… get me outta here!"

"I will I will…" However, in the complete darkness with the rocks digging into his back his own mind was fighting to stay sane. 'I will not give in… I will not give in!' he told himself as he tried to think of something, anything to get them out of here. "Ah… Nabiki… by my leg is the flashlight," He told her and kept the strain out of his voice.

"Ok…" Slowly, she let go of his hand and let her hand travel up his arm… down his side to his leg where she strained to reach the flashlight. Upon grabbing it, she quickly turned it on and was relieved to be able to see… even if the only thing she could see was him less than an arms width between their chests. "W-what h-happened?"

He just grinned weakly. "I think when I broke that big rock, it um well…" Seeing her nod at his comment he let out a soft sigh.

"We…. We've not gonna make it… are we?"

"What?"

"We're not going to live… we… we're going to die here…" he could see the panic begin to take hold in her eyes and he had to admit he was scared too, but he was not going to give up.

"No. We're not gonna die here!"

"But… but we're going to be crushed! We're going to die!" Her eyes frantically flicked from one side of his arms to the other and all she could see other than him was rocks. They were completely covered in them and they were going to die here.

"We're… not… gonna… die…" he told her but his muscles were beginning to hurt.

"I don't wanna die! Please kami! Anyone! Save me!" Nabiki began to yell out in panic.

"Oh gods…" Ranma mumbled as the weight was becoming too much and he felt himself being forced down on her. "No… I will not…" He closed his eyes and tried to force his body to fight against the fatigue. But he soon felt her body under his.

"We're gonna die… we're gonna die!" Nabiki kept wailing especially as Ranma's body began to touch hers. She knew all that was between her and death was him, and even he could not hold up a mountain.

"Nabiki…" he groaned out. "I'll save you… I promise… I'll find a way…" he told her though their space was quickly running out.

Nabiki felt his forehead touch hers so she opened her eyes. And there, in front of here, was Ranma. Trying to keep her alive, even though she knew they were as good as dead. In that moment, she felt her mind clear and she made up her mind. If she was going to die, then she was going to do so on her terms. Tilting her head to the side, she pressed her lips to his.

Ranma's eyes snapped open as her lips touched his and he almost lost his strength. But as he looked into her eyes, he could tell she wanted this. Her eyes pleaded with his until he started to kiss back. And then the two of them closed their eyes. Just seconds later the two felt as though they were floating up towards the sky, but they did not open their eyes. If this was how they were going to go into the after life, then so be it.

In the kitchen of a small shrine not far from the two teens, Nodoka was almost done preparing lunch when panic seized her. For several long moments, she felt as though ice was flowing though her veins. "Kami no… not again…"

Dropping everything, she rushed out of the small home and ran towards the entrance of the cave.

Many miles from there, a young woman was cooking lunch for her father and his friend when she suddenly fell to her knees. "Oh my… what… Nabiki!" she suddenly shouted as she felt a weight pressing down on her heart.

To be Continued…


	7. Just Heavenly

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." I am working on them, though progress is slow. Between work, friends demanding I leave the house occasionally, and a multitude of unfinished works things just keep proceeding slowly.

Also, if anyone is interested, I post my stories to Zorch's Blog-o-Rama as well as to the yahoo groups Fan Fics R Us and Anime-Fiction-ML to be pre-read and such before they are released.

To the Heavens, Chapter 7: Just... Heavenly...

Nabiki felt his forehead touch hers so she opened her eyes. And there, in front of her, was Ranma. Trying to keep her alive, even though she knew they were as good as dead. In that moment, she felt her thoughts clear and she made up her mind. If she was going to die, then she was going to do so on her terms. Tilting her head to the side, she pressed her lips to his.

Ranma's eyes snapped open as her lips touched his and he almost lost his strength. But as he looked into her eyes, even he could tell she wanted this. Her eyes pleaded with his until he started to kiss back. And then the two of them closed their eyes. Just seconds later the two felt as though they were floating up towards the sky, but they did not open their eyes. If this was how they were going to go into the afterlife, then so be it.

In the kitchen of a small shrine not far from the two teens, Nodoka was almost done preparing lunch when panic seized her. For several long moments, she felt as though ice was flowing though her veins. "Kami no… not again…"

Dropping everything, she rushed out of the small home and ran towards the entrance of the cave.

Many miles from there, a young woman was cooking lunch for her father and his friend when she suddenly fell to her knees. "Oh my… what… Nabiki!" she suddenly shouted as she felt a weight pressing down on her heart.

Hearing his daughter scream, Soun Tendo looked up from the game board and turned towards the kitchen door. Using this distraction a portly bald martial artist decided to move the game pieces around since he was loosing, badly.

So far the two of them had only been playing for a few minutes, and both were rather sluggish from the amount of alcohol still in their system from last night's drinking. All morning Soun felt something terrible in his bones. He had felt like something was going to happen, and it wasn't good. So hearing Kasumi scream out, he began to worry and hope that she was just excited over something else entirely. 'It's not like Nabiki would ever get hurt…' he said mentally, but upon hearing his eldest daughter crying, even though a closed door, he made up his mind.

"Something wrong Tendo?" Genma has asked, but his request fell on deaf ears as his friend quickly stood up and literally ran to the kitchen. "Must need a drink… oh well, now to move these around a little…" he mumbled as he made sure there was no way he could lose this game.

"Kasumi?" Soun called as he almost ripped the door off its hinges. Quickly he scanned the kitchen but he did not see his daughter, but he could hear her. Stepping around a table and moving towards the counter, he saw her. "Kasumi…" he gasped out.

His firstborn daughter was on the floor leaning against the counter, her arms holding her legs tightly against her chest as she rocked back and forth crying uncontrollably. "Kasumi?"

"She… she's gone…" she muttered quietly as her voice was near non-existent.

"What?"

"She's gone daddy… she's gone…"

"Who's gone?" Soun asked though already his eyes were filling with tears. That horrible feeling he's had all morning was getting much, much worse. Stumbling towards her, he knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"She's gone! I know she is… it hurts daddy…"

"Shhh… I'm here now…" he told her, though he did wonder who the she was, he hoped it wasn't what he felt it was.

"She's gone…" Kasumi whispered. "Nabiki… she… she's gone…"

Soun felt as though what was still alive inside him had just died. "Kami no… please…" Inwardly Soun was begging the kami to take him and return his daughter. 'Please… no… not that… anything but that… I don't want to loose anyone else… please!'

After having set the game board just right, Genma waited, and waited. Then he waited some more. He could hear noises from the kitchen, but he wasn't very sure what it was. Finally able to stand mo more, he stood up and stomped towards the kitchen. Yet even he was not prepared for what he saw. Seeing father and daughter clutching each other tightly and crying was not normal. 'Kasumi… crying… this… this isn't right. She never cries,' he told himself then set about trying to get help as there was not a thing he could do in this instance. "Where is that ungrateful boy of mine?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE DOSEN"T EXIST?" Akane shouted at the top of her lungs after having listened to what Kodachi had to say.

Kodachi sighed and looked at the assembled group. Since finding out from Sasuke about Ranma this morning, she had contacted Ranma's other fiancées and the four of them were now sitting at a table in Ukyo's café. "I can't explain it any better than this…" she pointed to the birth and death certificates. "Saotome Ranma died on the day he was born." She then pointed to the paperwork showing where he was buried. "And his mother signed the paperwork to have Ranma buried. There is no adoption paperwork… there is nothing to suggest that they ever adopted a child."

"But then… who was it… who did that fat ass engage me too? Who the hell ran off with my dowry? If it's not Ranma… and it's not someone they adopted, then who the hell was it?" Ukyo was fast loosing her patience. Nevertheless, she could not argue the facts that Kodachi was pointing out.

"Shampoo too too confused…"

The others could not help but agree to that themselves. "I do not know, for all we know Genma stole him from another family, or they never filed the proper paperwork for the adoption."

"STOLE A CHILD?" Akane shouted. "I know the jerk sold Ranma several times, but you think that he kidnapped a baby from someone and has been lying to him all this time?"

"It's entirely possible. I have gone through the records that Sasuke brought to me. Several times papers were sent in to take custody of… well… Ranma, away from his father. But since Ranma did not exist, then everything was denied."

"But this doesn't make sense at all!" Ukyo told them. "Look, if the jack-ass kidnapped a boy, named him Ranma after his own son died… why in the hell did he think just putting his son's name on a wedding certificate would suddenly make everything legal?"

"I am not sure he cares about legal," Kodachi told them and massaged her forehead. Right now, she had the mother of all headaches just contemplating this mess that had been her beloved's life.

"You got that right… stealing my dowry and then leaving me on the side of the road like that… and then trying to force a total stranger on Akane like that."

"Right," Akane stated.

"I mean I know her father is stupid enough to fall for it, but…"

"HEY!"

"Look, lets face facts," The Okonomiyaki chef said tensely. "We don't know who Ranma really is, and if Ranma was never officially adopted into the Saotome Family then there is no joining of the schools, there is NO giri, and there certainly is NO DAMN ENGAGEMENT!" Breathing heavily Ukyo tried to get herself under control, as this also meant the same thing for her. If there was no Ranma, then her dowry was stolen by a con-man and she had been forced to spend the last ten years of her life trying to find someone that did not exist.

"Well if Ranma doesn't exist then…" Akane was about to say more, but she had just hit on a very sore issue.

"Don't you think I know that! I spent last night talking to my father telling him what we did know… and if he finds out that Ranma never existed… my life… the past ten years…" Tears began falling from her eyes as she felt the weight of everything settling on her. "My whole life… has been wasted…"

In the past forty-eight hours Kodachi had had one thought going through her mind. 'Things were much easier when I was insane… oh why can't I just slip back into that fantasy again?'

"Shampoo too too confused…" Out of the four girls, Shampoo actually had it the easiest. If Ranma existed, he was her husband… if he didn't and this was someone else… then he was her husband. Plain and simple. All this paperwork and other things that Kodachi was pointing out just made the young Amazon's head hurt.

Unfortunately, things did not get to go much beyond this as a phone ringing got everyone's attention. Stiffly Ukyo marched to the phone, plastering on a fake smile as she answered it.

"Hello Ukyo's…" She suddenly stopped and her smile changed to an angry scowl. "What the hell do you want?" She listened to the phone for a moment then quickly turned to Akane. "That jack-ass wants to talk to you."

"Um… ok…" Akane said and picked up the phone. Before she could ask what he needed, her eyes went wide. "What… Kasumi… I'll be right there!" Dropping the phone, the youngest Tendo ran out the door shouting. "Bye! See you later I have to get home!"

Kodachi blinked at the display. "That was odd."

"And finding out Ranma isn't who we think he is isn't odd?"

"Yeah, what she say," Shampoo seconded.

"True… but I wonder what was going on?"

Genma hung up the phone. After calling the school and finding out that Akane wasn't there, he called the only other places he could think of. Both having to do with food. Thankfully, he had found Akane on the first try after the school and he was hoping that the girl could fix what ever was wrong with his friend and Kasumi. 'I hope lunch isn't delayed…'

It didn't take long for Akane to make the run home. However, in her haste, she did not notice Ryoga... nor did she notice that she knocked him over into a puddle of water. This also meant that she missed seeing Ryoga turn into her pet P-chan.

"Bwee?" the little pig asked as it watched Akane running away at a high speed.

While Ryoga was just knocked over, there was another that received worse. Happosai, grandmaster of the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts and all around pervert was enjoying himself. He would pilfer a bra or panties off a helpless pretty lady and then run away leaving behind a frustrated and annoyed string of women. That is, until he crossed Akane's path.

"Oh my head…" the aged master said as he looked up from the face shaped indentation in the hard concrete that Akane's foot had made with his face. Looking around him, he could see his silky darlings falling to the ground. His bag of stolen goods, having been knocked away from him, had flown up into the air where it had emptied its contents.

"Oh no! My silky darlings!" he cried and tried to grab them, thus failing to see the horde of angry women not only catch up to him. With his mind focused on the pilfered lingerie, he was easy prey to them as they proceeded to beat him with anything they could find. "Ouch…" he mumbled when they walked away many minutes later after having reclaimed all his stolen goods.

When Akane got home, she nearly pulled the doors off their hinges to get inside. "Kasumi!"

"Good you're here," Genma said as he tried to sound important. "Your father and sister are in the kitchen…" he blinked as she completely ignored him after that and ran into the kitchen. "Doesn't anyone respect their elders anymore?"

"Kasumi!" Akane called out as she entered the kitchen.

"Oh Akane! It's terrible!" Soun wailed.

"Nabiki…." Kasumi said weakly.

"What? What about Nabiki?"

Struggling, Kasumi told her little sister, "Something… horrible happened… I… I can feel it… it hurts…"

"No…" Akane said softly then shook her head defiantly. "No, I won't believe it. She's fine there's nothing wrong… I'll prove it!" So saying, the youngest Tendo rushed to the phone and dialed Nabiki's cell phone number. Even though the last dozen times she's tried to call her sister since she's been gone she's only received the recording that the number could not be located, Akane was going to make it work.

"Ha! It's ringing!" She crowed happily. When there was a weak, "Hello?" Akane knew Nabiki was fine. "Nabiki?"

"Yes?" Came the slow response.

"Are you ok? Everything's fine?"

"Um… yeah I'm… ok…" her sister said slowly.

"Good!" Akane said with a smile. "You sound tired, did I wake you up?"

"Um… I think so… or am I still dreaming?"

To Akane it sounded as though Nabiki was tired, and possibly confused. "Nabiki… have you slept in all morning!"

"Um…"

"Never mind! Kasumi was worried that you were hurt, I have to go tell her everything is ok, see you, bye!"

After hanging up the phone, Akane went to go calm down her sister… and her father… and tell them that Nabiki was fine. However, it wasn't until much later that Akane thought to ask Nabiki about Ranma.

"That… was weird…" Nabiki said as she stared at the cell phone in her hand while her other one held the egg.

"Um yea… so… are we dead?" Ranma asked as the two of them looked around. Under their feet were white clouds, but all they could see in any direction was clouds and sunshine. No land, no trees, no people. Just Ranma, Nabiki, her cell phone and the egg.

Nabiki did not like being confused, but she guessed that being a ghost wouldn't give her any more answers. "I… I don't know… I mean we were in there… and now we're out here…"

Moving her in his arms so that his left arm supported her legs, and his right arm her back, effectively cradling her, Ranma just looked around and tried to figure out just how they had managed to get out of the cave, and up in the clouds. "Ya know… I thought being dead meant…"

He was interrupted as the phone rang again. "Hello?" Nabiki said as she answered it.

"Boss! Are you ok? We've been trying for days to reach you!"

Placing the egg on her stomach and next to Ranma, Nabiki rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Um… now's a bad time…"

Ignoring Nabiki's comment the voice asked, "Did you run off with Ranma? He's been missing too!"

The boy in question quietly chuckled while Nabiki groaned. "I'm with him AND his mother, nothing's going on, other than we're tying to find out a little more about his past."

"You're with his mother too!"

"Yes."

"Ah… if I was all alone with someone like him I'd…"

Nabiki's eye twitched and she cut that line off quickly. "What do you want?"

"Huh? Oh… people have been wondering and rumors are starting to spread that you and Ranma ran off to get married!"

"That's just what I need…" Nabiki groaned out though she did have to admit, that for being dead, Ranma sure felt nice to be cradled against.

"I know, I told them that so far nothing has been confirmed, so… you haven't married him… have you?"

"WHAT!"

"Sorry… sorry! I'll tell them nothing has happened… see you later boss!"

She stared at her phone for several long minutes. "Ranma…"

"Yeah?"

"Either I've gone one hell of a phone…"

"Or?"

"Or we're very much alive… But how can we be here if we're alive?"

Ranma thought about it for a minute then chuckled deeply. "I forgot I could do this…"

"Forgot what?"

"It's like walkin' ya know. Once ya get used to it, it's just normal…"

"What's normal?"

"This…" So saying, Ranma began moving them around as though he were flying without wings. For a few moments the stayed above the clouds, then Ranma began his decent… taking them lower. As he did, they discovered that the clouds were just barely over the top of the mountains, just enough to obscure them from view.

After passing though the clouds, Nabiki's breath caught in her throat as she saw the land below them. She's known that Ranma was capable of amazing acrobatic feats, but to actually be carried though the air like this left her truly unable to comprehend it all.

"Hey that's mom…" Ranma said and motioned towards where his mom was kneeling by the mouth of the cave with dust billowing out from it.

"I guess there really was a cave in…" Nabiki said as he landed, though she was reluctant to slip out of his arms.

Reluctantly Ranma put Nabiki back on her feet and turned to his mom, who was crying uncontrollably at the mouth of the cave. Moving towards her, he called out, "Mom?"

"Oh Ranma it's terrible! Ranma and Nabiki… they've… been crushed in a cave in! I've lost my son for a second time!"

"But mom… I'm right here…" Ranma said, then watched as she turned around. It almost made him cry to see the pain of loss on her face. "See mom… I'm… GAH!"

Nabiki giggled slightly as the Saotome matriarch tackled the boy to the ground in a crushing hug as she wept tears of joy.

"OH MY LITTLE BOY!" She cried out in joy.

"Um Auntie…"

"OH MY LITTLE BOY! I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Um… Auntie… can you let go of Ranma?"

"I'll never let go again!"

"But… Auntie… he's turning blue…"

"Huh?"

"I don't think he can breathe…"

"Oh no Ranma!" Quickly Nodoka let go of her son who collapsed on the ground trying to suck air back into his compressed lungs.

Rushing to his side, Nabiki knelt beside him when his eyes snapped open and their eyes met.

Ranma was sure he was about to die… when suddenly the pain went away. Looking up at the clouds in the sky his eyes met the concerned brown eyes of what he thought was an angel. "Cute…" he said softly as he looked at the angel, though when she blushed and he heard someone else laughing he realized he had said that out loud. "Um…"

"Shhh…" Nabiki said with a grin as she looked down on him. "Let's call it even, you saved my life, and I saved yours."

"Anytime…" Ranma said in a daze as he looked at her smiling face. Slowly he lifted his hand and caressed her cheek.

"Ranma…"

"Shhh…" he said and pulled her towards him allowing their lips to meet for the second time.

To be Continued…


	8. Repercussions

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." I am working on them, though progress is slow. Between work, friends demanding I leave the house occasionally, and a multitude of unfinished works things just keep proceeding slowly.

Also, if anyone is interested, I post my stories to Zorch's Blog-o-Rama as well as to the yahoo groups Fan Fics R Us and Anime-Fiction-ML to be pre-read and such before they are released.

To the Heavens, Chapter 8: Repercussions

Looking up at the clouds in the sky his eyes met the concerned brown eyes of what he thought was an angel. "Cute…" he said softly as he looked at the angel, though when she blushed and he heard someone else laughing he realized he had said that aloud. "Um…"

"Shhh…" Nabiki said with a grin as she looked down on him. "Let's call it even, you saved my life, and I saved yours."

"Anytime…" Ranma said in a daze as he looked at her smiling face. Slowly he lifted his hand and caressed her cheek.

"Ranma…"

"Shhh…" he said and pulled her towards him, which allowed their lips to meet for the second time.

When she finally pulled away, both of their faces were flushed as well as bearing nervous smiles. "So… what was that for?"

Ranma just chuckled nervously. "Um… well, it just seemed… ya know… right."

She gave him a wry look. "It did?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time, you had better have a better reason," she told him and pulled away from him, which was when he noticed his mother was watching them.

Amazed, Ranma turned his eyes towards Nabiki before slowly saying, "Um… sure?" He replied a bit unsteadily then asked, "Can we skip the almost bein' buried alive next time tho…" he cut off what he was going to say when he noticed Nabiki had closed her eyes and started to tremble. "Ah… sorry…" he told her lamely which she waved off when her trembling subsided.

Though she was concerned about Nabiki, Nodoka was happy that the two of them were very much alive. Yet even her concern was overwhelmed by having seen her son kissing a girl, leaving the Saotome matriarch beyond giddy. Nevertheless, she did have one question. "What happened?" Nodoka asked as he stood up; yet, he kept his eyes on Nabiki.

"Ah well… after I found the place, I started lookin' around and finally found her…"

"Her?" the two asked, interrupting him.

"Yeah, her," he said pointing to the black egg that Nabiki had not realized that she had been holding.

Looking at it, she could not help but ask, "Huh, when did you…?"

"Right before the cave collapsed and…" Ranma cut off what he was going to say as he caught the egg in one hand and his other arm wrapped around Nabiki. The girl had not only suddenly closed her eyes and started trembling at the mention of the cave in, but she had begun to fall when her legs buckled under her.

Watching Ranma move, Nodoka was not sure if her son had really moved that fast, or had he really just disappeared from one place, and appeared next to Nabiki. "Ah… Ranma… son… what's so important about this egg?" she asked hoping to put the trembling girl's mind on something else.

"She's not just an egg; she's my ship, Kaida."

Forcing her thoughts on the egg and what Ranma was saying, Nabiki kept memories of the cave away from her mind. "S-s-so…" she stuttered then calmed herself. "So how can this egg be a spaceship?"

"Naw, the egg's not the ship, Kaida is."

"But son, I thought you said the egg was…"

He shook his head and was about to explain things better when his stomach rumbled loudly. "Ah…" he said and chuckled nervously, "I don't suppose lunch is ready?"

"I can't wait for you to come back!" a voice exclaimed over Ukyo's phone.

"Yeah, thanks Dad… I… I'll be heading back in a few days. I… I have to take care of some things around here first." With that said, the Okonomiyaki chef hung up her phone and sighed heavily. "DAMN IT ALL!" she suddenly screamed.

"I take it your conversation wasn't what you expected?" Kodachi asked.

"No it wasn't… I told him what you found out and the jerk wants to call it all off."

"Call it off?"

"The engagement… dad wants to find Genma and take back my dowry through the fat hide of his!"

Kodachi nodded, as she could understand that. "So what now?"

"I… I don't know," Ukyo said softly as she fell into a chair trying to hold back her tears.

Earlier, when Akane had left, Shampoo hadn't seen a reason to stay since this didn't affect her claim on Ranma; regardless of whether or not he was a Saotome, he was still her Airen.

This had left Ukyo and Kodachi at the café for several moments wondering what to do.

Having no answers on their own, Ukyo had called her father, and told him everything that they had found out since she'd talked to him after returning from Ranma's grave. "All I ever wanted was to be with Ranma… but the fat jerk left me on the side of the road! I spent ten years hiding who I was because of him! Ten years! And now… and now… now… my life has been wasted… thrown away…"

"I… I'm sorry," the gymnast said softly placing her hand on Ukyo's shoulder. She could also relate to having lost a lot of time, having thrown away a good portion of her life. When she was younger, her father had informed her that their mother had left, and was not coming back. From then on, her father paid her no mind, unless she was in trouble. Having been too young to understand it, she thought that since he only noticed her when she was bad, then she would be truly terrible. But that had not helped, as soon afterward her father left her and her brother alone to take a vacation. One that was, "away from them and Japan," he had yelled loudly. Desperate to get some sort of attention, she had spent the next several years in her gymnastics to get as much prestige and recognition as possible. Even if it was bad recognition, as she still kept doing things, hoping that he would one day come back. Yet not just him, but she hoped that one day her mother would return as well.

Yet now, even with her father's return, there was no family, there was no happy home that she remembered. Most importantly of all, there was no mother. It was when she saw Ranma's tombstone that she realized an awful truth. Perhaps the reason her mom left and would not be coming back, was because she was not alive. She had been sorely tempted to have Sasuke look up information on her mother, but had been reluctant to do so. Yet if Ranma died and was still walking around, then perhaps her mother could be too. 'Rubbish!' she reflected, and continued to think. There had to be an explanation, but so far, there wasn't.

"This is very ominous," Cologne said softly as she looked at a cup that until a few minutes ago had been sitting on the shelf.

"What great-grandmother say?" Shampoo happily asked as she walked into the cafe.

Picking up the cup fragments, the aged Amazon looked between the pieces and her great-granddaughter and sighed. "I fear something has happened to son-in-law."

Not realizing what cup this was, the girl did not understand how a broken cup could mean something happened to Ranma. "Oh? Why great-grandmother think that?"

Holding up the handle of the cup, Cologne showed Shampoo a strand of hair wrapped around the handle. "I used son-in-law's hair to tune this cup to his ki… now that it has broken I fear that something must have happened to him, again." She signed then and wondered how many times the boy was going to get himself nearly killed. However, had she known that the cup shattered when Ranma had been nearly crushed by a mountain, she might have been more concerned. As it was she could easily recall this happening twice before, and each time she had to reacquire a strand of his hair. Thankfully, with him coming to get free food it has been easy enough to obtain more strands of hair from him. It was just annoying to have to keep repeating to process.

Seeing the cup and hearing what her great-grandmother had said, Shampoo became nervous. "Oh no!"

"I wonder what it could have been?" The aged woman mused.

"Great-grandmother think Airen hurt?"

She contemplated it then shook her head. "No, the times this has happened before was when his ki surged and he became stronger like when he faced the phoenix." Seeing Shampoo nod her head Cologne began throwing the pieces away including the hair she had.

"What we do now?"

"We will have to wait for now," Cologne said sadly.

"WHAT?"

"Son-in-law is missing, we do not have any clues as to his whereabouts, and since his ki has changed, this is useless. You said before you left that Mrs. Saotome is not at her home as well, which cuts down on our options." Seeing her great-granddaughter's depressed look Cologne smiled. "Do not fear child, Ranma will be ours. Nabiki does not wish a repeat of the last time she made herself a fiancée. All we have to do is wait for Ranma to return. And when he does he will surely be stronger than before."

"Aiya! Great-grandmother, is you sure Airen return stronger?"

"He has in the past, and I see no reason for this to be different as he has had no new challengers. Now come Shampoo, we must prepare for his return, I fear the boy is getting too hard to control, we may have to change tactics."

"Shampoo no can wait till Airen come back for Shampoo!" The girl bubbly replied ignoring everything else her great-grandmother had said.

"In the meantime, what of the others? It is… unusual… to get a call from the Kuno girl. Especially one asking you to go to the chef's place."

Shampoo shrugged her shoulders. "Violent girl, spatula girl and ribbon girl upset that Ranma is not Ranma, but Shampoo no care. Ranma is Shampoo Airen even if Ranma is not Ranma."

Annoyed at her granddaughters bad Japanese, Cologne switched to their own language. "Child, these are not warriors, they do not see Ranma as we do."

"I know," Shampoo countered relieved that they stopped speaking Japanese. "But why would it matter if Ranma is the stupid panda's son or not?" She laughed then and told her grandmother, "Hearing that he's not makes me happier!"

"You are not the only one child…" Cologne shuddered at the thought of Genma returning to their village as well. "I am much happier knowing that we can leave his worthless carcass behind." Switching back to Japanese, she told her great-granddaughter, "Now, we need to get ready for our lunch customers."

"Do have to?" the girl whined, as she hated sounding like an airhead when she spoke Japanese.

"Yes, and it will help make the time pass and hasten his return."

Shampoo smiled happily, "Then Shampoo get busy!"

"I'm telling you that she's fine!" Akane tried desperately not to shout at her sister, though she wouldn't mind yelling at her father at times. However, this was not the time to yell at him, as he was still crying and holding on to Kasumi.

"H-How…" the older girl asked as she tried to stop crying.

"I just talked to her on the phone, she sounded sleepy, that's all. I probably woke her up when I called." Inwardly she was thinking her sister was lucky being able to sleep in this late.

"But… I…" Kasumi started to say as she tried to get herself under control.

"She's fine!" Akane said through gritted teeth as that prevented her from yelling.

"And Ranma?" Genma asked form the door. "Any word from that ungrateful boy?"

Akane whirled on him and thankfully, for her, Kasumi was nowhere near the bald martial artist. "You! Just what's the big idea bringing him into our home anyway?"

"What do you mean?" he asked indignantly, "Your father and I made a promise before you were even born girl that the schools would be joined and…"

"Oh shut up!" Akane broke in causing the large man to become agitated. "I am sick and tired of hearing this!" She took a few quick breaths and just before he was about to respond to her outburst she started again. "How could you grab some random kid and make him think you were his father and then come here and expect some kid you found to fulfill your stupid pledge?"

"What are you talking about? Ranma is my son and it's a matter of honor that you two get married and…"

"You are NOT his father!"

"Yes I am!"

"No you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"No you're not!"

"I am!"

"Are not!"

"Stop this!" Kasumi cried out causing Genma and Akane to look at her for a moment before glaring at each other.

"Ranma is my son, and that's all there is to it," Genma said in a huff and was about to turn away but was stopped by Akane.

"How can Ranma be your son when your son died the day he was born?"

"Akane!" Soun yelped in dismay. He's heard all sorts of things form her, but this was a little too far fetched.

"It's true!" The girl replied. "Yesterday I saw his tombstone and Kodachi showed me his death certificate!"

"Bah, that girl will say or do anything to get my son," Genma scoffed causing Akane to grit her teeth.

"Then why…" she said slowly as she toyed with the idea of wringing his neck. "Why would she show me the marriage certificates you and father forged in our names that were rejected?"

Genma waved it off, "Bah, they weren't forgeries; I just got Ranma to sign his when I told him they needed them for school and your father…" He stopped suddenly and then grinned sheepishly, "Oops…"

"You told him… you told him… You IDIOT! How dare you try to do this behind our backs you lying disgusting sack of…"

"AKANE!" Kasumi and Soun cried out.

"It's true!" the girl said in her defense. "This jerk is trying to make me marry some nobody he found off the road and has duped everyone into believing that it's his son!"

"Girl," Genma said menacingly, "Ranma is my boy and…"

"No he's not! Why was that certificate declined then? Tell me? You tricked him into signing it, and daddy put my name on there, so why was it declined?"

"Um…" Genma stopped, he hadn't thought of a reason, other than there wasn't a ceremony.

"It was declined because Saotome Ranma is dead!" The girl cried out loudly shocking those in the room. "I was there, I saw his tombstone… Ranma died… he died the day he was born!" Some say that one will have a nervous breakdown after crossing the threshold of what they can bear. However, Akane had crossed that line many times and had not fallen apart before. Yet that was before and this is now, which was why the youngest Tendo slowly slumped to her knees. "He's dead… he's always been dead…"

"But Akane… maybe it was some other Ranma?" Kasumi said softly as she moved to stand beside her sister.

Akane just shook her head. "I saw it… I saw his grave… I saw his death certificate… Ranma's gone… he…"

Genma and Soun looked at her as she began to cry and babble incoherently when Kasumi quickly pulled her little sister into a comforting hug.

With neither of them was sure of what was going on, Soun turned towards his best friend. "Saotome?"

"Yes Tendo?"

"What is she talking about?"

"I have no idea," The portly man replied.

"Saotome… he is your son… right?"

Genma looked at his friend with an annoyed expression. "Of course he's my son."

"Ok, good…" Soun replied and looked at his daughters and tried to find a way to fix this… if it even could be fixed.

Indignantly, Genma stomped out of the kitchen to return to the game board mumbling his complaints about how no one believed him on his way. "Stupid girl…. Thinking my boy died at birth, rubbish!"

While the elder Saotome was thinking about the so-called rubbish she was yelling, her father however was trying to figure out what had happened. "Akane…" he started and watched as Kasumi did her best to push her own worries aside and take care of her little sister. 'She's grown so much…' he thought of his eldest daughter.

Wiping tears from her cheeks, Akane looked at her father defiantly. "You think I'm crazy don't you?"

"What? No, never… it's just that…"

"Just what daddy?"

He recoiled from the venom in her tone, though he tried to stand fast. "What… where did… ah…"

Pulling out a couple pieces of paper from her pocket, Akane handed one to her father. "Nabiki has this on her desk, it's Ranma's birth certificate."

"Ok… but this doesn't…"

Akane quickly interrupted him by handing him another piece of paper. "This is the marriage license that you forged." The fact that she could have killed with the venom in her voice was not missed by her father or Kasumi.

"Ah… well…" he hedged when she pushed another piece of paper in his hands.

"It was rejected. Why daddy? Why would they reject it? Was he already married? Was he too young to get married?" She asked callously and then thrust another piece of paper into his hands. "This was filed the same day he was born. This is why. This is why… why… why…" tears welled up in her eyes. "They lied to us!" she suddenly cried out.

Soun for his part looked at the death certificate. It was official, or at least it looked that way to him. "But this is impossible… I… I know Saotome would never lie to me about this."

"All he's ever done is lie to us! How can you not believe me over him?"

Soun winced, but he did not meet his daughters accusing eyes. "N-now I know Saotome has lied about several things… but he wouldn't lie to me about this…"

"You… you are taking his word over mine?"

"I…"

Akane pushed her way out of Kasumi's arms much to her sister's surprise. "I can't believe you!"

"Now Akane…"

"No listen to me father," she said causing Soun to wince from the sudden change from daddy to father in her voice.

"Daddy," Kasumi said suddenly interrupting them.

"Yes?" he asked meekly and as glad at least one of his daughters still called him daddy.

"I… I think Akane is telling the truth." Kasumi said softly which caused both of them to look at her.

"You… you didn't believe me?"

"I… I was not sure what to believe. But I am sure now," she said with a firm nod of her head.

"Wha… why?" Both father and daughter asked.

"It was not all that long ago that I was talking to Nabiki in her room, and I noticed something."

"What?" the two asked then looked at each other then turned their attention back to Kasumi.

Pulling the birth certificate out of her father's hands, she pointed at what she mentioned to Nabiki. "Here…"

"His blood type?" Akane asked.

"Yes… and then here…" she pointed to another piece of paper.

Her father looked at it, then the first one. "It's different? Maybe that was because of the curse?"

Kasumi shook her head, "I do not believe so."

Akane just looked stunned. "She… she knew," Akane stammered out. "Nabiki knew?"

"Yes," Kasumi said sadly.

"When? When'd she find out?"

"I noticed this the night before his went on a trip with his mother. She had been going though all the information she had about Ranma." Kasumi did not want to think of why Nabiki had been doing that.

Soun just looked at her, and one thing was plaguing his mind much to his daughter's disappointment at not wanting to think about it. "Why was Nabiki looking into this?"

"Ah Ranma… he… he asked her to find a way to get out of his engagements…"

"What?" Akane and Soun bellowed, though she continued her rant. "The jerk was trying to find a way to dump me? After all I've been though and finally deciding I liked the jerk and he was trying to…"

"Akane?" her father said softly as hope blossomed in his eyes.

"Akane… daddy… it's… it's not what you're thinking… Ranma… he… Nabiki said that he…"

"That he what?" Akane asked and then recalled how sleepy her sister sounded on the phone. 'Oh no… they wanted to run away together…'

"Ranma has always been concerned about his honor…"

"Right," Akane scoffed as she realized that all of this could have been set up by her sister so that she could get all of Ranma's fiancés away from him and then run away with him. 'It's all too perfect…'

"Well…"

"What happened?" Soun asked though there was a pit of fear growing inside him.

"Ranma showed her… he…"

'That pervert… he was making moves on my sister behind our backs and forced Kasumi to help him hide it!'

"He told Nabiki that if she could not help him find an honorable way out of his engagements… he… he would do it…"

"Do what?" Soun asked.

'Do it! Oh no… Ranma and Nabiki did it already! I've never get that two timing jerk away from her now.'

"Commit… seppuku…"

"Haw I new it! I knew he'd…" her anger suddenly melted away. "What?"

"He showed Nabiki the family blade… he was planning to do it… he could not see any other honorable way to fix his problems.

"What?" Akane asked as her eyes opened wide and the color drained from her face. "No… he's not supposed to do that… how can he think that? How can that jerk think I'd live if he killed himself? If he was that serious I would have done anything to keep him alive…"

"Even if that meant marrying him, and Ukyo and Shampoo?"

"WHAT?" father and daughter yelled again.

"Nabiki didn't think you would go for it, but… but if it meant keeping him alive she said she would marry him and the others as well."

"She would do that?" Soun asked thinking his eyes were going to any moment pop out of his head as much as she was staring at his daughter.

"She… she told me that there were only three ways out of this honorably…"

"What are they?" demanded Akane, 'Like hell I am going to give him up so Nabiki can take advantage of him.'

"Either we get Ukyo's family and the Amazons to drop their engagement to him… they all marry him… or…"

"Or?" Soun asked allowing a lump to form in his throat.

"Or he… he… kill…ki…" Kasumi began to cry then at the thought of Ranma dying or leaving them.

"That baka… if he thinks he can just kill himself and fix everything… I'll kill him myself!"

"Kasumi… how… how do you know all this?" Soun asked softly.

Kasumi did not say a word… instead she went over to one of her cupboards and pulled out a piece of paper and something else that was wrapped up in some cloth. Taking them over to the table, she opened up the small bundle of cloth allowing them to see the tanto bearing the Saotome crest. Then picking up the piece of paper she read, "Kasumi, I snuck this away from Ranma while he was asleep and I would appreciate you hiding it so he cannot find it or else he may use it." The girl looked at her father and sister as they stared at the tanto. "I found this the day they left, in one of my cabinets… I am not sure how long it had been there before then. I don't want Ranma to find this either."

Akane looked at the tanto in fear as she contemplated Ranma actually going through with it. 'But why… why not talk to me? How come he talked to her and not me?' Looking at her sister, she closed her eyes tightly for a moment to hold back her tears before opening them again. "I… I'm going to my room… I… I think I'll skip lunch today."

"Ok… I'll bring something up later," Kasumi said and re-wrapped the tanto. 'Yes. Making lunch is good. Routine is good. It'll help me calm down.' Kasumi added to herself, almost setting herself off again when she automatically thought of how much she would need to make for Ranma.

Soun watched as Akane just nodded and walked slowly out of the room. "Kasumi…"

"Yes father?" Kasumi replied softly.

"I… I've never known Saotome to lie like this before… he… we… we've been though a lot together… but this… I…"

"I'm sorry…" Kasumi said with her head bowed.

"No…" he told her gently and then pulled his daughter into a hug. It did not occur to him that it had been a long time since he had last hugged her. "It's not your fault… this is… it's a lot to take in."

"I'm still sorry."

"You shouldn't be, but thanks…" he replied and kissed her forehead. 'I'm sorry my daughters… for all the pain you've had to go through.'

To be Continued…


End file.
